


A Learning Experience

by Nununununu



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: 5 Times, Anal Sex, Angst, Bath Sex, Bioluminescence, Bisexual Eddie Brock, Consentacles, Cuddling & Snuggling, Don't copy to another site, Edging, Explicit Consent, Explicit Sexual Content, Feelings, First Time, Fluff, Gender-Neutral Venom Symbiote (Marvel), Grief/Mourning, Hand Jobs, Interspecies, Kissing, Light Bondage, Masturbation, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mind Sex, Minor Violence, Mutual Masturbation, Oral Sex, Orgasm Delay, Other, Shower Sex, Sick Character, Size Difference, Slice of Life, Sounding, Synesthesia, Unexpected Peril
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-25
Updated: 2019-09-21
Packaged: 2020-05-19 19:49:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 24,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19363180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nununununu/pseuds/Nununununu
Summary: Venom has taken control of Eddie's body plenty of times in the past. Eddie unexpectedly discovers he can manipulate Venom's form in return, to an extent.Five times they failed to talk about it, plus one time they did.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: this is a work of fanfiction. No profit is made from it and no offence intended. 
> 
> Set post movie. They / them pronouns for Venom, who is presented as being non-binary and potentially fairly genderfluid, although this isn't focused on. Potential triggers listed in the notes at the beginning of individual chapters.

The first time it happened, they were arguing over something stupid, bitching at each other just for the fun of it really. Late at night but too comfortable to want to bother getting up to go to bed, Eddie lying sprawled on the couch with his crumpled t-shirt exposing his belly, knees akimbo, can of beer wedged in the gap between cushions and hip. Empty takeout cartons scattered around them and Venom pooled like a sludgy throw blanket over the back of the couch, one tendril idly batting at stray strands of Eddie’s hair like the world’s gooiest cat, while the remaining tendrils hogged the remote.

Venom was dead set on watching some awful trash soap rerun too shit to be shown any earlier, where they all screamed at and attempted to kill each other or had sex (these options not being mutually exclusive or necessarily occurring in this order), and Eddie, who didn’t really mind at all and had mindlessly stared at the show in the past quite happily, nevertheless felt obliged to complain.

“Come on man, not this junk again,” he finished scratching his belly and wriggled around until he could investigate an armpit, catching himself only at the last second from spilling the beer, “Isn’t that killer whale documentary you wanted to watch supposed to be on?”

**_I set the laptop to record it._ **

Venom had gone the whole hog experimenting with the advanced technological options available to them now they had upgraded to having a TV in the apartment (read: a battered little box some neighbour had been about to throw out and willingly hawked for a few dollars plus a bit of local gossip). Eddie had likewise given in to a certain symbiote’s incessant pleas for the software required to record programs when Venom’s all-time favourite baking show had clashed with the dancing competition they both liked, after his suggestion Venom form two heads and watch one show on the TV and the other on the laptop had resulted in a headache and much confusion for them both.

Eddie had dreamed of increasingly unrealistic cake concoctions dancing giddily while decked out in gaudy outfits and spraying frosting everywhere for a _week_ –

“Wouldn’t you rather record this show to watch later _on your own_ and see the whales now instead?”

**_No_**.

– Nonetheless, he somehow hadn’t anticipated being unable to watch a program of his choice on either screen. Which upon reflection, he probably should have done.

The people on the TV were trying to strangle each other now.

**_Julio slept with Antonio last week, when he’s meant to be getting married to Mariela in three days._ **

“That’s –” Eddie wanted to protest that he didn’t want to know. And didn't care. He still stopped scratching to squint at the screen. “That isn't Antonio – it's Julio and Feodosi trying to kill each other. Or hump each other.” He squinted a bit harder. Honestly it was difficult to tell.

And fuck, he knew these guys’ names. Not due to the knowledge seeping over from Venom either.

**_Yes, Feodosi wants to have sex with Antonio too, but he was pretending to be interested in Julio. Apparently Julio has found out._** Venom was watching the violence-slash-grinding with interest, probably wondering if one would consume the other’s head. Which might happen, granted, just in a different sense.

**_While Dominika has a crush on Mariela,_** Venom added when a tall woman just as scantily clad as the two men burst into the kitchen they were wrestling in and started wailing.

“ _’Has a crush’_ – think you mean she wants to jump Mariela’s bones, buddy,” Eddie snorted at Venom’s phrasing, “Hang on, isn’t Dominika the one who was going on last week about wanting to join a convent?” And then – damn it – he remembered he wasn’t supposed to be invested in this.

Venom was already answering, before Eddie could renew his protests, **_Yes, because as I understand it there are many enthusiastic lesbians in nunneries._**

“What – Have you been looking up porn on the internet again? My search history is already filled with _so much crap_ because of you,” Nuns, Jesus. Moaning in despair, Eddie ran his hand over his face before remembering he’d been using it to scratch his balls earlier. Oops. “ _Dude_.”

On screen, Dominika’s wailing changed noticeably in pitch as the two men broke off their tussling-cum-fucking in order to take turns sticking their tongues down her throat. She responded eagerly.

The sapient space goo stiffened on the back of the couch, either in indignation or curiosity, **_But she has professed many times in the past to have absolutely no interest in men!_**

“Guess she changed her mind, buddy,” Recalling some of Dominika’s sermons on the subject, typically before, during or after seducing her girlfriend of the week, Eddie felt similarly unconvinced. Still: “Different writer this episode, probably.”

**_Hmph._ **

They both watched in silence for a moment as Julio ran his tongue down the back of Feodosi’s neck while Dominika grabbed Feodosi’s hands, pulling them up over his head. Sandwiched between them, he submitted beautifully.

An unexpected little frisson of arousal shooting through him, Eddie blinked.

**_They’re like you, Eddie,_** Venom mentally sat up (while physically, they remained sludge). Definitely curious now.

“What? _Who do you mean_ no fuck, don’t answer that,” Eddie did _not_ need to know, “Okay, kids TV has officially finished, adults only now, that’s enough.” He flailed a hand up towards Venom – and thus the remote, “Turn it off or change the channel.”

**_Prude_** , was Venom’s answer, given Anne had some time ago banned a certain other ‘p’ word. They slopped themselves like an unusually viscous oil slick over said remote.

Eddie shot upright in outrage, “Not a prude!”

The effect was spoiled somewhat by just how much his stomach muscles protested the move. The beer can tipped over to a perilous angle, this time unnoticed.

**_Are so._ **

Clothes were being shed on the TV as someone pressed someone else up against the fridge, while another person made their way lower down, descending only just out of sight of the camera. There were lots of wandering hands and gratuitous moaning. A shot of Josephine, the soap’s local oddball character generally used as cheap comic relief or in quickly resolved plot devices (who Eddie strongly felt was unfairly misrepresented and had Views about) peering in through the kitchen window from outside, her mouth agape.

“Am not,” Eddie felt compelled to protest. Because he wasn’t a prude. In his time he’d watched plenty of terrible (actual) porn produced on a miniscule budget and with an even worse script than this garbage! He’d had sex plenty of times! With a variety of people in all sorts of inventive ways! Unlike _someone_ he could name.

**_Cheap shot._** Venom increased the tendril that had been batting Eddie’s hair to larger, harder proportions and used it to smack the back of Eddie’s head.

“Oh, _cheap shot_ , buddy,” Simultaneously growling and laughing, Eddie flailed both hands this time, seeking to smack Venom in return, and then there was much tussling and the beer getting knocked over and Eddie not realising until he felt a certain suspicious sticky wetness covering his crotch.

He squawked. Very loudly.

Mariela, on the TV, was next to burst into the room, catching the threesome and squealing at the exact same pitch Eddie reached. There was much cursing and crying until she began to spontaneously fling off her clothes.

“Oh my fucking god, _turn it off!_ ” Eddie, at this point, was jiggling and squirming and very much wanting a shower. And to mop the couch, although really one more stain probably wouldn’t be noticeable amongst all the others. But more importantly, he had a point to make. Possibly. He thought.

A battle to win anyway, which was what mattered.

“Give me the remote!”

**_No!_ ** **_Prude!_ **

“Fine!” Eddie shoved one hundred percent ineffectually at his disobedient space slime, “If you won’t hand it over, then just – get back inside me” and he _thought_ this fiercely at Venom – _get in me right now this instant –_ and Venom didn’t even have the chance to shoot back a predictably inappropriate

**_Kinky_ **

Because instead they were completely unintentionally zipped back inside him with a disturbingly slurping sound as they regurgitated the remote, letting out an equally unintentional squeak of utter surprise ( _shock_ ) as they went –

**_E-Eddie?!_ **

And then Eddie was left there sitting alone on the soggy couch with an unpleasantly wet and increasingly cold crotch, oblivious to the TV, wondering –

“What the fuck?”

– just happened.


	2. Chapter 2

The second time it happened, Venom was in denial while Eddie was still somewhat stunned and aware they should probably Talk About It. In a calm, mature adult fashion of course, taking time to ensure that everyone was comfortable and in a safe, secure place before starting; to hash things out fairly between them to avoid any upset or misunderstandings.

Rather than doing any of this however, Eddie instead decided to sneakily experiment while they were in his favourite hipster coffee shop, while Venom was occupied with a bevy of overpriced pastries.

It was mid-morning the day after Eddie’s little late night discovery, the sun was up and the students were out, glued to their modern technology as they flocked in for coffee between classes. Even as he sighed over the thought of his own aged laptop in comparison, Eddie couldn’t stop pre-emptively wincing inside every time some kid juggled their shiny miscellaneous gadgets and newly filled quirkily individualised reusable cup.

Perched on his tastefully upcycled seat at the corner table in the back of the coffee shop, rather than brewing over notions such as gentrification, the uneven distribution of wealth, the untenable cost of university fees and the vague feeling of guilt he experienced for frequenting the place, Eddie instead continued to idly people watch while secretly concocting the basics of his cunning plan –

Step 1, wait until Venom’s suitably distracted

Step 2, attempt to mess with his space goo

Step 3, see what happens

Step 4, deny everything and run if needed

– absently taking in college kids’ fashionably creative accessories and trendy haircuts meticulously styled to give off the look of being carelessly tousled. Eddie on the other hand, with the superiority of age combined with years of practice at looking (what he liked to think of as) attractively dishevelled, was wearing last night’s stubble and the faded band t-shirt he wore to sleep in (although hey, he’d worn it yesterday daytime too! So it totally wasn’t like he’d gone out just wearing pyjamas), the jogging bottoms he’d scratched a hole in along the seam right on the ass (only a tiny one so it didn’t really count, did it. Besides the pants had never been jogged in, so a bit of wear and tear probably just gave the impression he was healthier than he was: any sharp eyed person otherwise checking out Eddie’s arse would just presume the rip occurred when he was striking some advanced yoga pose or something, right?) –

Eddie blithely ignored Venom’s **_Wrong!_** with the ease of long practice

– And Venom, looped around his wrist amongst his bracelets, a little head formed beneath the shelter of Eddie’s hand where Eddie – ever so casually and naturally, of course – held it suspended over the plate of pastries, their teeny tongue poking out of the corner of their mouth in concentration (as opposed to it just generally lolling out any old how as per usual) as they used a tendril to stack the pastries in a very precisely formed pile.

While Eddie couldn’t quite hear the actual words to their thoughts, his head was filled with a subvocal impression of a lot of studious calculation of exact angles and aesthetic symmetry, and Venom’s anticipation of the satisfaction they’d have once they’d completed their tower and could thereafter brutally savage the delightful treats –

“Wishful thinking there, pal; people will definitely notice if you do that.”

**_We’ll be subtle._ **

“No, you really won’t.”

– and he decided now was the time to put his plan into action. To establish whether Venom’s vanishing act last night had actually been because of him or, you know, had just been some kind of odd hiccup in their bond.

So when Venom harrumphed indignantly at Eddie’s profession of doubt and went to ever so daintily pick up a pastry with a delicate tendril in demonstration of just how extremely subtle they were, the treat all perfectly golden and flaky with almonds and artfully drizzled with dark chocolate frosting (and even Eddie, who had eaten far too many of these things over the months since meeting Venom, felt saliva flood his mouth, although this might well have been due to some kind of transference) –

**_Mine!_ **

Eddie shielded his mouth with his cup to hide his amusement, “Sure thing buddy, you can have it.”

– So when Venom was thus sufficiently distracted, Eddie nudged a firm yet careful deliberate little _oops!_ over their bond.

Tiny maw wide open in gleeful readiness to nom, Venom abruptly unintentionally undulated, yelped in surprise –

And faceplanted directly into the pastry.

“ _Ohmygod_ ,” Eddie snorted with laughter so hard he sprayed his mouthful of coffee over both his lap and the table – and consequently the contents of the plate.

**_Eddie!_** Venom’s cry of total betrayal was nearly enough to send him out of his seat and onto the floor. **_How could you do that to the pastries!_**

“Sorry, sorry,” Truthfully Eddie wasn’t more than the tiniest bit sorry, not only due to the many times Venom had screwed with him similarly (not even counting all the body hijacking back when they were first acquainted), but also and in particular because –

Well.

Eddie couldn’t say he was sorry really, because the sight of Venom’s round little sulking face scowling up at him while covered in frosting was quite possibly the single most _adorable_ thing he had ever seen. He wanted to catch hold of them and lick it off –

No, wait. Uh, rewrite that.

He wanted to grab _napkins_ and _mop_ the mess off their toothy pout. Yeah, that was better. That was absolutely what he’d meant.

**_Eddie –_** Those tiny opalescent eyes narrowing until they were barely visible, a little growl burbled in Venom’s throat.

Unfortunately at this size it had about the same effect as a kitten attempting to appear threatening. Eddie took in the air of immensely wounded dignity Venom was bristling with and promptly dissolved back into laughter.

“Ah crap,” They were gaining attention they didn’t need. Wheezing as he attempted to reign himself in, Eddie snatched a handful of napkins and busied himself giving the table a cursory wipe until it was somewhere approaching clean, pretending he wasn’t aware of how flushed his face felt or of the tears of hilarity wetting his cheeks.

**_Eddie, we hate you._** Venom’s pout was still in full force. Eddie couldn’t look at them for the knowledge he’d go off laughing again, but he knew for a fact they were going to bite him before they did it, needle teeth clamping down on his index finger.

“Ouch,” It didn’t hurt really – it wasn’t intended to – and he was more than used to such bloodless nips, but Eddie still winced automatically and then reached out just as habitually to rub the top of that tiny round head, pressing his lips to hold in a snicker when he encountered frosting. Swiping it off his little space slime as best as he was able, he offered his fingers for Venom to clean.

**_Hmph._** Venom shook off their strop enough to oblige, their eyes curving happily in appreciation of the flavour (frosting plus Eddie), although they then bit him again as if to make up for it.

“Oi,” Darting his hand away this time, Eddie swigged the remaining dregs of his coffee before thinking to comfortably assert, “You so don’t hate me.”

**_You_** **_ruined our delicious snacks with your stupid inferior human gag reflex,_** Venom grouched instead of arguing, the blatant change of subject as good as agreeing they didn’t hate him as far as Eddie was concerned. As if sensing this and in protest, they thwacked his bicep with a tendril.

“Hey!” Eddie yelped, twitching away from the offending limb, and then shot a look around the coffee shop to ensure not too many people were staring at them. Or at least not at Venom.

Okay, only a handful were giving him sideways glances. That wasn’t too bad and no one was filming. People occupied themselves with their drinks once he made eye contact anyway and so, relaxing, Eddie turned his attention back to his much exaggerating alien goo.

“I didn’t _ruin_ the pastries, you drama queen,” In demonstration, he took a bite of the treat dented from impact with Venom’s little noggin and proclaimed around the mouthful, “Mmm, see, still yummy.”

It really was.

**_Edd–mmph!_** Eddie prevented Venom’s completely unsurprising objection to this by popping a piece of pastry he’d torn off into their open mouth _,_ completely failing to quash a grin as their complaint melted into happy rumbling. ** _Mmm. Yes. Yummy._**

At the feeling of bliss spilling over from his symbiote, Eddie had to battle the compulsion to similarly melt. To combat this, he handed over the rest of the treat, “Here you go, bud.”

**_Thank you._ **

“No need to thank me; it was already yours.” Maybe now it was time to actually talk about stuff. “So anyway, what’s going on, huh?”

While Venom ducked their tiny head under the table for more privacy while eating in public, their lone manifested tendril dragging the remains of the pastry with them like they were concealing their kill, Eddie belatedly thought to dart a glance down at his lap to check the result of his coffee-related outburst didn’t look too much like he’d pissed himself.

Shit. In fact the size and positioning of the slowly drying stain looked much like he’d gotten way too excited over his drink.

“Ah, fuck me,” No, that probably wasn’t the right response to looking like he’d jizzed in his pants.

**_Okay,_** Venom provided.

“I, uh –” Startled, Eddie burst into laughter all over again. He had to crush the impulse to squirm a bit even so, suddenly self-conscious considering Venom’s location, “Yeah, that really wasn’t what I meant.”

**_It wasn’t?_** The attempt at innocence was highly unbelievable.

“Nope,” Eddie wasn’t going to think too hard about _that_ one. He scratched at his stubble, “So. Going to tell me? What’s going on with –” How to phrase this? “Me being able to –” He twirled a finger, “You know.”

Thanks to their bond, Venom perfectly understood this eloquent enquiry.

**_Hrmmm._ **

Patting ineffectually at his pants with a couple of fresh napkins for something to do with his hands, Eddie pretended not to notice the contemplative silence that descended over Venom’s side of their bond, just as they pretended not to notice him noticing it.

Beneath that silence Eddie could sense a churning mass of alien emotions he wasn’t about to prod at. Once it became clear this undercurrent was not about to quickly resolve, he slipped a fresh pastry under the table by means of encouragement (as in, bribery).

**_Nothing,_** Venom finally concluded, which was obviously bullshit. Their tendril curled around both the pastry and Eddie’s knuckles, so he rested his hand on his thigh while they ate, absentmindedly wiping his greasy fingers off on his pants.

“Something’s definitely going on,” He fiddled with the partially deconstructed tower of pastries with his other hand, “Especially as you don’t want to talk about it. Symbiotes mind controlling hosts is what you guys do, right; it’s your thing. That and devouring their organs. Not normal for the body hijacking business to go two ways though, is it.”

**_Not mind control as you think of it._** Venom sort of shrugged without shoulders into their pastry, the feeling of it more of a mental impression than actual movement. **_And Klyntar aren’t ‘guys’._**

“My bad,” Gender was an area they hadn’t really touched on, beyond Eddie establishing that calling Venom ‘ _he_ ’ wasn’t exactly correct but neither precisely was anything else. He had begun to get the suspicion none of the options were entirely _incorrect_ either, but that was conjecture so far. “Hey, you want me to stop calling you ‘dude’ and gendered stuff like that?”

**_Nothing about our situation is ‘normal’,_** Venom responded to Eddie’s earlier question first, which was true but also blatantly covering something. They licked pastry crumbs off their teeth for a moment before adding, **_And the various appellations you award us don’t bother us._**

Some strong emotion broke through the morass.

“Wait,” Eddie identified it without even trying, “You _like_ them.” The realisation burst out of him at a rather louder volume than was wise. “You _like_ it when I call you –” He very nearly said 'pet names', “– nicknames.”

Heedless of his behaviour gaining no few looks, he sat up straighter, his concentration entirely on the way all the pieces of Venom inside him suddenly seemed to harmlessly squeeze and then _ripple,_ their bond erupting with an undeniable surge of pleased embarrassment.

“Hell, buddy,” Eddie abruptly wished they were elsewhere, so he could give his silly putty alien the thorough squeeze they deserved for such sentiment. He was grinning broadly without realising it, wide enough to make his cheeks hurt, “You _sap_ –”

**_No one has ever referred to us positively or used nicknames for us, aside from you._** Venom was mentally writhing. **_Is it so bad that we like it?_**

“Nah, it’s not bad,” In Eddie’s opinion it wasn’t a bad thing _at all_. He shoved down a jolt of anger towards the dumbasses who had failed to appropriately value his space goo. “You know, uh –” Right, he could say this: “I’m glad you do, bud. I like it too.”

**_Eddie –_ **

Sensing Venom trying to clamp down on the way their pleasure and embarrassment ballooned even further just made Eddie want to squish them all the harder. Shoving the impression of doing so over their bond, he felt them internally shudder.

Externally however they just bit his hand.

“ _Oi_ ,” As such, Eddie simply had to oh so innocently enquire, “So this means I can call you parasite, right? Term of endearment and all that.”

**_No!_ **

Eddie picked up on their intended form of retaliation that moment too late to stop it as –

“ _Shit, don’t_ – _!_ ”

– seizing control of his body, Venom made him faceplant straight into the remaining pastries.

Needless to say, damn it, shortly after that Eddie was politely but firmly informed of the necessity of finding a new favourite coffee shop.

But as he succeeded in talking the staff into letting him clean up in their restroom, instead of just chucking him out, and then into giving him a cake box for the squashed wreckage of the pastries “for later” (read: for Venom to scarf down as soon as they got somewhere unwitnessed), it definitely could have been worse.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Trigger warning** for a mention of non-detailed past domestic abuse (not main pairing). Chapter includes discussion and processing of canon minor character death (Maria), plus references to homelessness.

The third time it happened it was deliberate on both sides.

“Okay,” Opening the bathroom door to let the steam out, Eddie then hooked a towel off the floor with his big toe, showing off his butt to the apartment as he stooped over awkwardly to scoop it up off his foot. Sniffing it for cleanliness, he dried his hair and face on the least dubious corner, “Laundry day tomorrow.”

**_We could do with new towels, not just clean ones._ **

“Not going to happen for a while, bud, you know that,” Swiping his chest and under his arms, pretending the worn out old towel didn’t leave his skin feeling much like it had been sandpapered, Eddie thought mournfully of the pitiful state of his wallet, “Food and bills come first.” Work was sparse at the moment and there hadn’t been any fancy coffee shops for some time.

Venom was quiet for a moment.

**_We can cut back on –_** They couldn’t quite bring themselves to say chocolate. **_Tater tots._**

_Damn_ , that was a major and unexpected concession. Eddie’s eyebrows shot up.

“You sure? They’re not _that_ costly.” He’d been mulling over a contingency plan for potato-based emergencies, in fact.

And besides which, he was fairly sure (okay, ninety nine percent sure but not going to say it) Mrs Chen had started selling the things to them on the cheap. She’d tossed them a free box of pop tarts the other day too, and yesterday Anne had brought over “too much lasagne” Dan had just happened to make “by accident.”

**_We owe our friends._ **

“Yeah,” Sighing, Eddie tossed the towel aside and wandered naked to the sink to inspect his up-and-coming beard, “We’ll do something nice to say thanks when we can. Sucks to have no money.”

**_We could get some._** This wasn’t a new argument and, judging by their tone, Venom didn’t expect it to end any differently from the norm. **_Take it from bad guys._**

“Nah, we’re not that bad. Other people have it way worse, bud,” Eddie smiled a little at the feeling of Venom predictably rolling their eyes. He mentally poked them, “Maria didn’t steal, did she.”

Venom gave off an impression of rolling over cat-like inside him, momentarily smug, **_Maria did things for money you would find shocking._**

In his desperation not to think about the Life Foundation, Eddie’s mind went straight to several choice possibilities. “Uh –”

**_Not like that._** There was a slight pause. **_Well, not much anyway._**

“O-oh,” For all Eddie had Opinions about issues such as the freedom of choice, respect and autonomy, and the questionable moral high ground of current popular political and religious opinion, a whole plethora of conflicting emotions rose up inside him.

Nonetheless the strongest was simply sorrow.

**_For the most part though,_** Venom continued unexpectedly as if in reaction to this, a little slowly and serious now, **_B_ _efore things got bad_** ** _Maria walked people’s poorly behaved canines, modelled for art students for a few semesters, and attempted to sell poetry and horoscopes she wrote. From what I gather, the poems were amusingly explicit and the horoscopes wildly inaccurate._**

“Yeah, she hawked me some of her writing the first time we met,” Biting his lip, Eddie avoided his reflection, “I knew Maria loved dogs, but – she never liked to talk about her life before.”

In truth, as happy as she’d been to chat, Maria had never liked to talk about her situation generally, always ready with a smile and an easy answer. The only things she had ever accepted from Eddie were his company, small amounts of money (always in return for something, like a poem or the newspapers) and the odd bit of snack food. The offer of his couch to sleep on had been laughingly waved off – but Eddie had picked up on Maria’s discomfort beneath her joking, just as he had gleaned enough about her past to know when not to press.

To know that in one way, as horrible and wrong as this felt – and how angry it made him to even consider – life on the streets might have been in one very specific sense almost an improvement.

**_Only an improvement in that she was able to face the threat of violence while retaining more of her independence and pride,_** Venom said almost gently.

“Damn,” Eddie had suspected this too, but it still hurt to hear it put into words.

**_Maria’s first winter spent homeless was in another city, where she burned her guitar for warmth one night when she was so cold she thought she was dying._** Venom’s voice quietened as much as he had ever heard it. **_But actually dying felt nothing like that._**

“ _Fuck_ ,” The whisper jerked out of Eddie, a burst of helpless grief lashing his chest. He hadn’t –

He hadn’t really had the chance to properly mourn his friend. Back then everything had happened so fast, and his memories and feelings had been so tangled up inside him in the aftermath – the fact he’d come so very close to dying, the fact Venom had all but sacrificed themselves to save him, the sweaty hopeless loser that he was –

**_Not hopeless._ **

“Thanks, bud.”

– that Eddie's mind had latched on to moving forwards as a survival tactic, automatically doing its utmost to shove the whole lot of it into Don’t Think About territory, not least in the attempt to ward off a number of delightful nightmares. And Maria deserved better than that.

She had deserved better in so many ways.

Thoughts of seeking out his last blunt razor forgotten, Eddie didn’t bother to locate his night clothes, simply padding out of the bathroom and flipping off the light, navigating the dark apartment by memory. Collecting a glass of water from the kitchen, he tried to swallow down the lump in his throat.

“None of that was exactly shocking though, bud,” he said finally, voice only a little bit hoarse. Sipping the drink helped him feel steadier.

There was a sensation of a caress, soothing over the curve of his head. **_We left those parts out._**

“Heh. Yeah, I know,” There was a place Eddie hadn’t quite been able to bring himself to go back to yet since everything happened: a corner of the park where he and Maria had come across each other a few times and ended up sitting on the grass laughing and shooting the shit, Maria ribbing him about the Brock Report, Eddie faux seriously critiquing her poetry, sharing cookies and chips.

Setting the glass down in the quiet dark kitchen now, he headed for bed.

“Want to go to the park tomorrow and, I don’t know, join me for a couple of beers and some bawdy songs?” In Maria’s opinion, the ruder the lyrics the better the song had been.

Venom only answered when Eddie had settled under the covers, the sheets cool on his bare limbs.

**_Yes._** They curled up until they felt very small inside him. ** _I’m sorry, Eddie._**

“It wasn’t your fault,” Eddie badly wanted to hold them; to hug them close against his chest and bury his face into their form. “Hey, you want to come out?”

**_Mm._** A tiny noise, much like Venom didn’t feel they deserved it. **_It wasn’t intentional, but it_ was _my fault. Maria died because of me. She was a good person and I killed her. Even back then, as little as I understood the parts of her memories that came across my failed attempt to bond, I knew she thought of you as her friend. And I knew you felt the same._**

Tears stung Eddie’s eyes, seeping out unbidden to dampen the pillow, but the smile he scraped up was genuine.

“I reckon Maria would have been your friend too, Vee, had things been different,” he said honestly, letting himself think for the first time how things might have been in another life. “She never liked letting people get too close, me included, but I think she’d have loved you had she had the chance to get to know you.”

**_We –_** Venom stumbled mentally, taken completely off guard, **_I –_** **_really?_**

Maria would have enjoyed the alien thing and would have found their sense of humour and shapeshifting abilities hilarious, Eddie was sure of it. And she’d have had a whole lot of suggestions of scandalous stuff they could get up to.

“Yeah bud, really. She’d have thought you were awesome.”

**_Edd–_ **

Venom shook hard inside him. They couldn’t say any more of his name than that.

Couldn’t say anything.

“Hey, hey –” Eddie coaxed after a moment, soft and low, husky from the intensity of their shared emotions. Turning sideways on the mattress, he brought his knees up to shape his body around a space in which he could cradle his space goo. “Here Venom, let me,” He tugged at the little speck of them inside him very gently, “Will you – Can I –?”

It took Venom a long time to answer.

**_Yes._ **

Eddie had never heard it sound so much like ‘please’. He bit his lip, “Come here.”

Venom let him slowly, carefully draw them out. They didn’t assist in the process in any way or try to take on any kind of form, and so Eddie simply pictured reaching inside himself and scooping hold of them, drawing them up through his body until they emerged in long thin strands from his midriff.

Collecting them up, Eddie held them against him. He closed his eyes. “I’m sorry, too.”

They stayed like that for a long time, long enough for the sound of night time traffic to fade from outside and the heavy clouds that had hung over the city all day to part to reveal one or two stars.

“We eat _way_ too many snacks for anyone to want me modelling for their art class,” Eddie muttered finally, when sleep without bad dreams was starting to seem like a possibility after all, “Guess I should hit those weights or something sometime.”

**_You don’t need to hit anything; we’ll do it for you._** Stirring, Venom nestled in closer against him. **_But you can pose naked any time you want._**

Eddie spluttered with unexpected laughter, “Yeah thanks for that, pal. Maybe not.”

**_Art class isn’t about what humans perceive as being conventionally attractive anyway,_** was Venom’s sage comment on the matter.

“You saying I’m not conventionally attractive?” Despite everything, Eddie couldn’t resist the impulse to tease just a little, smoothing their many spaghetti tendrils into a more familiar whole.

**_We’re not ‘conventionally’ anything._** Venom arched and rumbled under his hands. **_Stop fishing for compliments._**

Yeah, he’d probably deserved that. Grinning rather helplessly, Eddie curled deeper into the warming sheets, snuggling into his space slime, “You’re right about us not being conventional, buddy.”

**_And I'm right that you’re not conventionally attractive,_** Venom snuggled back.

“Yeah as I said, _thanks for that, pal_ –” Eddie started, but it turned out they weren’t finished.

**_You’re far more attractive than that._ **

“Uh –” Not having expected that at all, Eddie accordingly had to attempt to smother himself with his pillow in the futile effort to divert attention from just how hot his face flushed.

Something occurred to him once they’d had a brief wrestling match and the pillow had been chucked onto – and then retrieved from – the floor. A memory. It was entirely possible Venom would already be aware of it from their time with Maria, but something still made Eddie want to share his perspective of it with them and through them, if possible, to learn hers.

He wanted to speak more about Maria out loud.

So,

“Want a bedtime story?” he asked.

**_Yes?_** It was quite clear from Venom’s tone they had no idea what a bedtime story was, but were willing to find out.

Eddie chuckled faintly at the antics he was recalling as he let his mind settle on the right words. “Okay, let me tell you about the time Maria decided to communicate only through performance art…”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mild CW for fairly frank but not overly detailed discussion of bodily functions.

The fourth time it happened, Eddie knew the moment he woke up that Something Was Different.

As bleary as he was, the weighty thump of his dick into his stomach when he was flailing free from his sheet-cocoon clued him in to the fact he had morning wood. This couldn’t really be classified as different though, let alone with a capital letter, given it was pretty much par for the course, but –

Well, the difference was that this particular boner thought it was special. It felt goddamned _nuclear_.

“Ughhh.”

**_Eddie, your body is leaking in two different places._ **

“Oh god,” Shoving his head into the pillow to muffle a groan, Eddie’s face promptly made friends with a large patch of drool. His groaning both increased and changed in tone, “Oh _god_.”

**_We did warn you._ **

This didn’t sound nearly as much like ‘I told you so’ as he expected it to.

“Guh – yeah,” Floundering in lingering sleepiness, wiping his mouth – and chin and cheek – off on his wrist, Eddie gave in to the urge to grind his hips experimentally against the mattress, thereby ascertaining that, yup, things were damp and sticky down there too. He hastily stopped, “ _Oh god_.”

**_We did also warn you about that._** To their credit, Venom only snickered a bit.

“Ye–” Eddie’s jaw cracked as the word was swallowed up by a massive yawn. He endeavoured to summon up the brain power required to send them a grateful mental kudo, “Yeah, you did. Thanks, bud.”

**_You are welcome._** Venom’s response was slightly distracted, much as if they were otherwise occupied. This was similarly implied by the stretch of tendrils descending out of the bed, across the floor and out of the room.

Since being unleashed on the internet, they had been swift to latch onto the idea of online gaming (anything they could keyboard mash while causing maximum pandemonium generally being a favourite, although Eddie had picked up on them acting sort of weirdly tender at times towards the viewpoint character in their latest survival horror game) and there were a couple of cooking blogs he’d found Venom trawling through at odd hours alongside staring glazed at youtube, when they weren’t deep in conversation with their online BFFs.

Eddie was convinced at least one of these was a seventeen year old girl, but both she and his space slime seemed equally unbothered by this fact, wanting only to enthuse about shared interests (i.e. reality TV and cat videos), and – as Eddie had discovered on subtly enquiring if there had been any accidental mentions of head eating or the like going on (as in, he’d just blurted it out) – Venom was incredibly protective of their friends.

Really, Eddie could have predicted this.

Lulled by the meandering of his thoughts back into a half dozing state despite the harassment being inflicted on his body by his persistent erection, Venom’s announcement –

**_Eddie, coffee._ **

– thus caught Eddie by surprise.

“Mwuh?”

The sweet, sweet scent that reached his nostrils delved straight into the depths of his brain and lurched Eddie zombielike into a seated position – the action all down to him and not Venom – before he had really woken back up, his hand groping upwards and outwards searchingly. Eddie caught a flash of grinning teeth and opalescent eyes shining in the midmorning sun before his fingers snagged the handle – or said handle was shifted nearer to his fingers obligingly – and his attention zeroed in on his mug.

**_Careful._** A tendril quickly adjusted the angle of his wrist.

“ _Gah_ – fuck –” Needless to say, Eddie was extremely grateful not to receive a lapful of freshly brewed coffee, especially under such circumstances. His balls shrank a bit at the thought, although the boner was proving stubbornly unwilling to yield. “Guh.” His voice still sleep rough, he pushed out further speech, “Thanks again, bud. Owe you one.”

**_No need. Don’t drink too quickly._ **

“Yes dear,” Only semi-aware of what either of them were saying, Eddie was busy blowing on the drink, bathing his already sweat-damp face with hot steam, happily inhaling the fragrance of his favourite brew.

A little ping of non-verbal emotion too complicated to be purely surprise came from Venom across their bond. His hand starting to move mug to mouth, Eddie paused.

“Mm?” He sent back a questioning ping.

**_It’s nothing._ **

“Mm okay, if you’re sure,” Eddie’s hand completed its action. Then, completely forgetting the advice he'd been given –

**_Wait Eddie, don't –!  
_ **

He chugged.

“Uuugh, ow,” Eddie's brain woke up in direct proportion to the amount of liquid that seemed to bypass his stomach in order to travel directly into his bladder. The bloody thing _twinged_.

And if anything the wait had only _increased_ the megalithic qualities of his boner.

Eddie moaned in despair into the last of his coffee, _“Oh my fucking god.”_

There was a pause from Venom's side of the bond in which they again failed to say 'I told you so'. In the end, they settled on: **_Your body is sending out some very conflicting signals right now._ **

“Yeah, tell me about it – shit wait, no don't,” Setting aside the emptied mug, Eddie gingerly climbed out of bed, “Seriously, I'm going to have to deal with this, but I don’t know what’s going to be less fun to attempt first.”

Waddling towards the bathroom, he winced through his initial steps before adopting an increasingly bowlegged gait, shoving the heel of his hand against his cock for relief from gravity at least.

Damn it, this was like being in high school all over again. But worse.

**_Worse – because of me?_** Venom could effortlessly deal with the whole situation one way or another, no doubt. Eddie knew this and they knew that he knew this, but just – ** _You don’t want our involvement._**

“ _Guh_ ,” Eddie said again succinctly, slapping his free hand against the bathroom doorframe for balance as he stepped over the sprawl of dirty clothes that had overflowed from the laundry basket and had some time ago given up pretending to be a pile. At least things had picked back up enough these days that they could afford exciting stuff like detergent and soap.

Once Eddie had achieved his goal of staggering into the room, he replied to the first part of Venom's comment, “Nah, it’s not you, Vee. Just kind of had the vain hope I was old enough for this not to happen anymore,” and to the second part, “It’s not like that.”

Having retracted inside him at some point earlier during his quandary, Venom perked up internally, **_Not like what?_**

“Just because I’m sure you can easily, I don’t know, unsquish my urethra or something while my dick’s like this – yeah really, please don’t – doesn’t mean I shouldn’t figure things out or can’t get there myself,” Eddie blinked sort of dazedly at the toilet, while trying to encourage his body to figure out how to do precisely that and also to calculate all the necessary things a guy needed to under such circumstances, such as how exactly to position oneself without appearing entirely moronic to one’s alien bodymate and the possible angles of – yeah, anyway.

**_No worries, Eddie._** Venom sent him back an impression of amusement that contained so much fondness it made Eddie duck into his shoulders at the equivalent of a mental pat on the head, and left him to it.

“Fuck,” The satisfaction of eventually succeeding in pissing was enough to rouse another rumble of amusement from them, and Eddie snickered in agreement at their

**_Feels good._ **

“Sure does,” Eddie groaned in relief on behalf of his bladder, before negotiating his way to the tub, leaning over it rather more delicately then usual to turn on the shower with his free hand, still gripping his dick in the other. About to glance down at it, he shot a look at the mirror instead, “This is probably going to be just as initially unfun.”

**_But necessary,_** was Venom’s astute observation. They didn’t quite appear atop his reflection, but he could sense them there, right under the surface. Eddie shot them a crooked smile.

“Uh-huh. You sticking around for the ride? I don’t want you freaking out if it feels kind of rough,” He could well remember their reaction when he’d first stubbed his toe, back before they figured out humans did dumb shit like that to themselves accidentally all the time.

Venom sent him back what Eddie tended to think of as the impression of blink. **_Do you –_**

A thread of uncertainty weaving across their bond, they stopped.

“Want you to stick around? Uhhh –” Eddie hesitated similarly even while swinging a knee up over the side of the tub, feeling Venom carefully adjust his balance, “Okay, this is an awkward conversation, huh?”

**_If it makes us feel awkward, perhaps we shouldn’t have it._**  

“Nah, I reckon we ought to,” The warm water felt awesome when Eddie completed his clambering and turned his sweaty face up into the spray. A grunt jerked out of him however when it pattered against the head of his cock, the feel of it more overstimulating than was currently pleasant, and he fumbled to turn his back to the showerhead.

**_Hmmm._** Venom’s initial less than impressed response to the thought of Talking About Things shivered halfway into a very different reaction when Eddie’s thumb slid not-quite-unintentionally over the head of his cock, soothing it after the sting. They shot to attention inside him, as it were, and then shuddered, **_E-Eddie –_**

“H-Huh,” Eddie shuddered alongside them, his hand moving on his shaft although he tried to stop it, discovering that – contrary to expectations – this really wasn't unfun at all. He braced a shoulder against the wall, “Ah – _fuck_. You need me to – We were going to talk – Is this –”

Damn it, he really needed to get a complete sentence out.

Squeezing his eyes shut with the effort it took to speak when the entirety of his body and a huge percentage of his brain were thoroughly occupied with his cock, Eddie got out determinedly, “Is this okay?”

**_It’s okay,_** Venom’s answer came hot on the heels of the question, **_Talk later. Do this more now._**

They sent him the impression of their hand on the back of his upon his dick – not the real thing, not actually touching Eddie or influencing him in any way, but –

An offer, perhaps. A question.

“Use words, bud, and – ah. You’ll probably find I say yes,” Eddie had no means whatsoever of denying how immensely red his face went as a result of this admission, but sweat was trickling down the side of his cheeks from his temples to join the stream from the shower anyway. The knowledge that, if they were looking, Venom could see _exactly_ what he was seeing as he squinted down at the desperate swollen head of his cock surrounded by his fingers as they tightened into a fist –

The knowledge that they probably _were_ seeing it –

**_We’re seeing it, Eddie._**

Venom’s voice was uncharacteristically careful, in the way they only got when Eddie surprised them with something they really wanted and they weren’t quite sure it was okay for them to actually have it, and that there weren’t any conditions attached (his space goo’s inexperience with any form of kindness was a whole ball game Eddie really wasn’t up to getting into now, but thank goodness they’d almost entirely relaxed about it with him by now) –

**_Although we will look away, if you prefer._ **

– Anyway, the knowledge that they were seeing exactly what he was seeing, which was exactly how fucking _enormously_ turned on he was, and that they were no doubt feeling it too –

**_Yes, we’re feeling it. Unless you want us to stop._ **

“ _Fuuuck,_ ” The whine that spilled from Eddie’s throat achieved a pitch he hadn’t heard himself make before, “No, you don't have to look away; don’t stop.” He thrashed sort of aimlessly with his free hand, thwacking uselessly at slick tiles when what he wanted was –

**_E-Eddie,_** Fuck but Venom sounded unsteady, like each pump of his hand was winding them up tighter over their side of the bond.

And what Eddie wanted was –

**_Eddie, we want to – Do you want us to –_** It seemed Venom was also having the same trouble with sentences. A little embarrassment flavouring their words, but with it an entire wealth of something that wasn’t quite hunger, far sharper and more focused than that.

“ _Hngh_ –” Eddie jolted at the feel of a stroke over the back of his knuckles, a little tendril emerging from his wrist. It prompted another whine, precome spilling out of his slit and over the rounded tip of the aching glans, dripping down onto his fingers.

He was already thinking _yes, Vee – yes –_ but Venom waited just as Eddie was waiting, getting themselves together, concentrating on forming a proper request as asked.

**_Can we hold your hands?_ **

“Fuck – oh my god – _yes,_ ” Eddie’s chest throbbed with just _how much_ he wanted this to happen as well, a sob building behind his gritted teeth as that little tendril expanded, becoming broader to encompass his knuckles. Then it formed fingers that slotted over his, not taking charge, not touching his cock, just holding on as he worked. Other tendrils span out around Eddie's other hand, giving him something to cling onto, and he dutifully, gratefully clung, moaning on each shallow intake of breath, his skin prickling wildly, nerves tingling.

Needing something more.

“Vee, can you –” he got out, feeling the way Venom was sort of swarming inside him, pooling in his pelvis like they wanted to get as very close as possible while holding off crossing without permission into the risky territory of his cock and balls. “I need –”

He was getting to the point orgasm was going to happen sooner rather than later, but however turned on Eddie was and had been for some time, it was still lacking a certain  _je ne sais quoi._

“Fuck, I need lube,” While not the answer, at least that would help. Between the calluses on his palm and the decidedly non-lubricating water from the shower, Eddie's dick would thank him for it. “Will you grab it for me, bud; be a pal?”

**_This is what you need?_** Venom was suggesting even as Eddie was asking this, which was hardly surprising given how much he’d been broadcasting it. A tendril had already poked out of his side to snag the bottle from amongst the jumble in the bathroom cupboard, hooking it out and hoisting it over within reach.

“Yeah,” Eddie panted, “Yeah, can you –” Ah fuck, his hands didn’t want to let go of Venom _or_ his dick. His legs were shaking, breath only speeding up at the thought of what he so, so badly wanted to request.

**_Should we suggest what you’re very loudly projecting that you want us to do or wait for you to ask? In case you have any doubt about our answer, it will be ‘yes’._ **

“Can you –” Oh god. This so wasn’t the most embarrassing thing Eddie had asked of them or anything _like_ the most embarrassing situation he’d been in with (or because of) Venom, but it was hands down by _far_ the most arousing. He screwed his eyes closed, squeezing Venom’s fingers hard with his own, “Can you, like, squirt some on for me or something? I know it’s lazy, but –”

**_You’re not being lazy._** A warm gush of amusement and fondness and – and _want_ swamped their bond, and Eddie helplessly groaned –

Right before jumping and yelping at the sudden splodge of cold right where he was most sensitive, his cock jumping likewise within his grip.

“H-Hey!” The trembling breathless quality of his voice rather spoiled his attempt at mock offence, “I know I asked, but – give a guy a little warning next time, yeah?”

If Venom had been feline, they would have pricked up their ears. **_Next time?_**

“Oh shit – I, ah – _uhhh_ –” The slickness was awesome enough that Eddie hurt his throat with his moan – for this reason only, of course, and not at all to do with the topic of conversation. He bit down hard on his lip, “Yeah, um, maybe.”

**_Then maybe we will._** Something abruptly leaked out from Venom's side of things: a sensation all tangled up like they too so very much wanted – _something_ – and were striving really, really hard to hold themselves back.

“V-Vee?” Eddie could feel his balls tightening, his cock straining like it wanted to fucking _burst_ –

**_Are you going to make faces?_** Venom enquired, a blatant diversionary tactic instead of fessing up to whatever it was.

“Shit – agh – faces?” Eddie was already making a face, in fact.

**_Yes, faces,_** Venom fed him a freeze frame image of that guy from that godawful trashy TV show they enjoyed – Feodosi, crowded up against the fridge with his two lovers-of-the-day hard at work – and Eddie spluttered with laughter despite his extremity.

“Hey!” His objection had as little effect as he expected. He mentally poked his space slime, “You casting yourself here a-as Dominika or wh-what’shisname in that case?”

**_The other one's name is Julio_**. A feeling of deep amusement came from them. **_And no, neither of them. Not currently._**

“Oh fffff–” Eddie abruptly remembered some of Dominika’s more domme moments and Julio’s tendency to bury his face in his partners’ bodies right where Eddie would very much like a certain someone’s face buried in the future if they were so willing, and Venom chuckled inside him, feeding him a couple of different images of Feodosi’s ridiculously over the top O-faces.

“Oh, you _dick,_ ” Spluttering, Eddie’s body couldn’t work out at all whether it wanted to crack up laughing or orgasm. The latter was going to happen very shortly anyway, if he didn’t take prompt action against it, and he didn’t –

He didn’t want to come half distracted like this.

Easing up with _immense_ difficulty, Eddie panted, succeeding in slowing things down enough to focus on Venom more than his cock. He reached inside himself to where he could feel the parts of them that weren’t manifested, mentally poking them again, “Hey, come on, come out here with me –”

**_Mm?_** Venom emerged rather more slowly than usual, somewhat stickily (Eddie absolutely did not want to know what they'd done with the rest of the lube, although if he'd in any way predicted any of this happening, he very likely would have bought the chocolate flavoured stuff. You know, just because).

“H-Hi,” Clearing his throat, Eddie and his dick watched with great appreciation as his funky symbiote wove themselves into their humanoid form, _very_ pleasantly crowding him in the cramped space available.

**_Here we are, Eddie,_** Venom ducked their head to avoid the lightbulb. They were licking their teeth, damn it, and that really shouldn’t be appealing, but fuck, _that tongue_ –

(Eddie had already secretly had many detailed and varied Thoughts about _that tongue_ , although he wasn’t quite at the point of sharing them yet)

– and his mind couldn’t get off the fact that Venom hadn’t let go of his hands.

The feeling of that not-hunger was swirling inside them even more viscerally now, through the body Venom had made and across their bond. It was broadening Venom's shoulders and narrowing their eyes, sharpening their smile as they took each other in along with the fact this was really happening, and –

And it was arousal, wasn’t it, that not-hunger. It wasn't just transference from Eddie or something: Venom was _aroused_ –

**_Yes._ **

– Eddie knew that, he knew that and he breathed and rotated his shoulders, flexing his hands to work off burgeoning cramp, grinning broadly up at his alien goo.

“Here you are,” he belatedly agreed, and glanced meaningfully down the length of their body to where there wasn’t anything like what he had going on, “And do you want me to, er, you know – 'here you are'?”

He pinged them an unspoken sort of enquiry about that area, just like when Venom had simultaneously offered and asked to touch his hands.

**_You want to make us a dick._ **

This wasn’t a question, just as Venom didn’t point out that they were most definitely capable of making one themselves.

Relaxing at their lack of outrage, Eddie’s grin deepened and crooked, “Yeah, I want to make you a dick. You up for that, pal?”

**_It seems we_** ** _soon_** ** _could be 'up for it'._** Leaning against the tiles, mirroring Eddie's position, Venom slanted their hips towards him with an air of ‘go on then’. When he raised an eyebrow in deliberate question, they huffed, amused, **_Yes, Eddie. Go on, make us a replica of your human genitalia._**

A beat.

**_Please._ **

“Wow, ‘please’?” Eddie couldn’t get that grin off his face however he tried. His brow furrowing, he pictured their bond as a kind of woven bracelet stretching between them and let himself sink into it, racing mentally down the strands that led to Venom and shape-shifting, aided by their occasional mental nudge.

**_That’s it. Like that –_ **

“Yeah, okay I’ve – got it, cool, thanks bud. This is kind of funky, isn’t it,” Eddie endeavoured not to stick his tongue out in concentration, although his eyes did slip out of focus, feeling Venom back off to let him work now he'd more or less cottoned on to how it was done, “But weirdly not that difficult? Because – you’re _letting_ me do this, aren’t you; not just showing me how it's done.”

It wasn't exactly surprising, given he’d had the suspicion all along that, however Eddie messed with his new party trick, Venom could easily stop him if they so chose.

**_Of course._** They shrugged. But then they added, **_Mostly._**

“Mostly?” Eddie echoed as something extremely interesting started going on down around his silly putty symbiote’s crotch. His fingers twitched with the impulse to reach out and touch.

**_The faceplant into frosting caught us off guard. But even if it hadn't, you still nudged us enough to get us with the pastry regardless._** Venom leaned in, their face suddenly very close to his own, and Eddie blinked a bit, his expression slackening with surprise and –

Well, with something else. A feeling that wasn’t hunger on his part, either.

His cock certainly knew what that ‘something’ was.

“Ah –” Eddie got out a bit weakly and then, as he felt things slot into place down below on their body, as it were, “ _Ta daa._ There you go.” He pulled back enough to see that –

Yup, he’d unintentionally made Venom a replica of his own dick.

**_Eddie –_ **

For a second, as they looked down at it, Eddie was _absolutely_ certain they were going to comment on the obvious size difference between them and the ratios one might therefore expect to be applicable. “Uh –”

But instead Venom went with a very genuine, **_It’s perfect. Now show us how to use it._ **

And Eddie’s heart just about beat its way out of his chest.

“Fuck,” He snatched a breath in, balls feeling like they practically _bounced_ , “Think you had enough of a demonstration just a minute ago, Venom. Do it yourself.”

His hand was shaking within theirs with _just how much_ he actually wanted to do this thing.

**_You want us to ask? Okay._** Looming in again towards him, Venom placed their mouth very close to his ear. **_Please, Eddie. Will you help?_**

That done, they pulled back to deliver their finishing blow, their glimmering opalescent eyes blinking open round and bright and wide.

While the effect was debatably somewhat lessened by the shit-eating grin threatening to break out over the rest of their face, Eddie was nonetheless totally _weak_ against that look.

“Oh my fucking – no, don’t you give me those fucking _puppy dog eyes_.” He was helpless against that particular ‘p’ word when it came from Venom as well, and they both knew it. Untangling his hand from Venom’s, Eddie shoved at them completely ineffectually, even as he stifled a whine at the sight of them, his other hand flexing around his cock.

**_Canines have nothing to do with it,_** Venom claimed as if butter wouldn’t melt in their mouth (which was true. They always gobbled it far too quickly to give it the opportunity). **_You stopped the demonstration early._**

“Yeah, I –” Eddie’s cock had been stridently admonishing him for this ever since he stopped, “I know I did.” He changed what he was saying to something more truthful than he’d expected to be able to confess, “I wanted it to be, ah. Mutual.”

Venom blinked at him, **_Do you think it wasn’t?_**

“No bud, I –” Damn it, that wasn’t what he’d meant to imply. Eddie shook his head, the fingers of his other hand straying out at last, curving over Venom’s hip, “This okay?”

**_Yes._ **

Eddie wet his lips, watching them watch him do this, “All right, what do you want to try?”

**_Oh, Eddie. Many things. Everything. What do you want?_ **

“Lots of possibilities, huh?” Eddie grinned at the thought, easily able to sense that, as much as Venom was curious and eager to test out their temporary new body part, the various other options out there appealed to them too. Although:

“For the moment, I – uh.” His boner had been plaguing Eddie long enough he was well aware it wasn’t going to let them get inventive, “What you said. Let me show you, okay? But – will you do the same for me too?”

**_Yes._** Venom took control over Eddie’s hand around his cock – just his hand – with ease.

Eddie’s mouth went very dry even though they hadn’t done anything more than that as yet. “Hell yeah, buddy. Great start.”

**_Thank you._** Venom’s eyes crinkled happily, **_Now you._** They wound their own hand around their replica of his cock –

And yeah, the size difference looked really damn funny and all that, but _fuck_ was it hot to see exactly what it would look like if they were actually grasping him –

And Eddie’s brain might have leaked out of his ears a bit, but he still succeeded in mentally taking control of Venom’s hand as they had his, and he was the one to nudge their fingers a little, tightening their grip.

**_Ah –_** Venom hissed and startled, imitation dick jerking, and promptly echoed the gesture, tightening Eddie’s fingers on his own dick, cranking them cautiously down on his shaft and then with more certainty. Eddie echoed this, mentally coaxing their thumb into swiping over the head of their cock, and then things spiralled very quickly from there.

“Oh my – oh my god, _fuck_ –” Eddie’s legs were shortly doing their utmost to imitate jello and his lungs were having trouble working, and he would definitely fall flat on his face and crack his head open on the side of the bath if Venom were to let go of him –

**_Never going to happen._ **

– but this was bloody intense and freaking awesome and he had the feeling his nose might start bleeding in a second, what with all the additional input flooding across their bond and using his brain in a way it had never been used before during sex, and he could goddamn fucking feel just how very much Venom was enjoying it, how much they _both_ were enjoying it, and –

**_Eddie, this is us asking very politely if we can kiss you,_** Venom was right there in front of his face again.

Eddie lost nearly all control of his mind's grasp on their hand.

“That’s – _yeah_ ,” He couldn’t get the breath in to get the words out. He also didn't have more than about two functioning brain cells left to point out that this request might Mean Something and that doing it might possibly Mean Something as well, maybe even more than this weird – _brilliant_ – form of masturbation. Instead he just clutched at Venom, doing his utmost to pull them down to his level while pushing up on his toes, “Yeah that’s beautifully polite, Vee, that’s perfect, you’re gorgeous. Come on then, kiss me _please_ –”

_**You’re the gorgeous one, Eddie.** _

Eddie gasped –

And one of them closed the remaining distance, it wasn’t really clear who and it didn’t particularly matter –

Eddie just slammed his eyes shut and opened his mouth to Venom's tongue, moaning hard enough their neighbour probably would be having kittens (he deserved it, the shit), moaning hard enough the trio of dogs started barking in the flat downstairs (oops), moaning hard enough he would feel it throughout the rest of the day just like he wanted to if he could persuade Venom not to heal his throat –

And then orgasm was crashing over them, tearing across their bond fast and fierce, hard enough they ended up breaking the bath.

**_Oh shit,_** Venom summoned the situation up afterwards, when they were puddled over Eddie on the decidedly damp floor. They sent out a meandering tendril that managed to turn off the shower after the third attempt.

“I know someone who’ll fix it for cheap, don’t worry,” Eddie sprawled as bonelessly as he could in the narrow space available, flopping on top of and under and around his splatted space slime. He hooked an arm around Venom, smiling giddily when they purred and nestled into him, and forgot about all and any conversations they kept failing to mostly have because, in this moment, everything was damn fine.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Trigger warning** for brief non-descriptive reference to depression and implied past suicide attempt. Not the focus of the chap :)

The fifth time it happened they were dying.

Well, not really. Not _dying_ dying. But still – Eddie had some sort of flu slash stomach bug slash virus-from-the-depths-of-hell, so it felt like they were anyway. It was the first time he’d been ill since they’d bonded, thanks to his alien goo previously always dealing with any pesky niggles like a pro, but this time Eddie had forbidden any tampering.

He had a damn good reason for it, but needless to say neither were enjoying themselves.

**_Ugh._** Venom was partially slopped out of Eddie’s elbow like they’d forgotten how to make shapes out of themselves, a limp puddle of goo.

“Ugh,” Eddie agreed. He lay on the floor mummified in the rug, snotty tissues strewn around him like some sort of modern art, toothbrush and a mug off to one side, the latter slowly fossilising with the dregs of some vile concoction Anne had forced him to glug down earlier, his teary eyes and feeble pleas for mercy going unheeded, although she had relented over the last few mouthfuls when his gag reflex got in on the party.

Thankfully she’d left before actual vomit – or anything worse – occurred.

And so here they were, collapsed in the living room after Eddie had finished making friends with the toilet bowl (again), the parts of Venom still inside him tucked up around Eddie’s upper chest and shoulders like they couldn’t bring themselves to go any lower in his body right now –

**_Correct._ **

– and Eddie with his eyes aching from the brightness of the streetlights outside coming in through the windows, head buzzing from the episode of that godawful soap rerun playing on the TV’s lowest volume that still somehow felt too loud, and the threat of Anne returning with Dan in tow tomorrow morning, if Eddie didn’t start “actually doing something to help himself get better.” And while Eddie was certain Dan, being the all-round good guy that he was, would be sincere in his heartfelt sympathy for Eddie’s stricken, plague ridden state, he nonetheless –

Well.

In all honesty, Eddie already had all the company he needed –

**_Same._ **

_Heh, thanks._

– and ultimately all he wanted to do was curl up in bed and cuddle his space putty.

**_Mmm._** The feelings that seeped from their side of the bond indicated that Venom was down with this plan.

“Right, up we get then,” Ignoring his rasping voice and stinging throat, Eddie therefore made a determined effort to put said plan into action – but only succeeded in mashing his face into the floor, “Urghhh.”

Stale crumbs of _something_ that had been festering between the boards were now stuck to his nose and chin. Resisting the impulse to lick his lips to aid in the quest to identify the floor dirt and mostly succeeding, Eddie groaned, “Fuck.”

**_We agree with that assessment._** Venom managed to make the manifested part of themselves solid enough to flop like a stranded fish. **_Urghhh. Dying, Eddie._**

_Not dying, bud._ Talking was too painful, so Eddie just thought at them instead. He sneezed a moment after, flinched as the force of it hurt his ribs, pitifully strove to resist hacking up a lungful of phlegm and then possibly cried a little at how shitty they both felt. _Just feels like it._

**_We also feel hungry._ **

This – wasn’t exactly correct, was it.

Despite his plague addled brain, Eddie was well able to sense the truth: that Venom was starving. Not _starving_ starving, that was, but hungry enough that it goddamned bloody _hurt_.

They’d been enjoying just kicking back for once over the week or so before he got sick, hanging out at home and trying different kinds of junk food, experimenting with treats like tater tots dipped in melted chocolate (Venom proving partial to dunking in things like still wrapped candy bars, whole eggs and chunks of raw meat when they thought Eddie wasn’t looking, all of which Eddie had issues with to more or less a degree, although the dessert monstrosity they’d later invented out of strawberries, ice-cream, strawberry jelly, and copious amounts of chocolate and churros had sent them _both_ into raptures), and going out hunting for heads had just been –

Well, put on the back burner for a bit, along with some research Eddie had been doing and a half edited article. Neither had seemed particularly important; they’d been too busy having fun _–_

**_It_ was _fun._**

_Yeah it was, wasn’t it,_ Eddie snickered, _Especially when you ate so many churros you couldn’t move._

**_And then you spent the next twenty three minutes poking us._ **

_Because you were splodged on the table all round and podgy and adorable! And you kept poking me too._

**_Because your stomach was all_** **_round_ ** **_and_ ** **_podgy_ ** **_and adorable._ **

“Oi!” Eddie’s automatic protest was all but lost to his chuckle, lacking any heat.

**_Mm, churros,_** Venom's humour melted into plaintiveness, **_Want more churros, Eddie._**

“ _Urk,_ ” Eddie’s stomach lurched, “Sorry Vee, but my body sure doesn’t.”

**_Yeah – er,_** Their response turned just as queasy, **_A_ _ctually maybe not now. Still hungry though._**

“I know, bud,” Eddie rubbed at his chest, over the place where they were churning inside him, “I know.”

_–_ It had only been over the past couple of days they’d both begun to really feel the lack of proper nutrition – in more than one sense – and Eddie had gone out first to Mrs Chen’s (where she’d had been dryly amused to see him purchasing salad and had promptly tried to sell him carrots and a number of other unidentified vegetables, at which point Eddie had fled) and then onto the city’s more disreputable areas in search of sustenance for his space slime, where people had proved randomly well-behaved for once –

And apparently full of germs.

“ _Urghhh_.”

**_Urghhh. We at least could have eaten that busker._** The man in question had been belting out some truly offensively bad covers of songs Eddie liked – and on discerning his disapproval, continuing at a pitch and volume just right to really nark Venom off.

“Unfortunately we can’t eat people just for being dicks, lov–” Eddie swallowed the word, saved just in time by a cough. He’d been slipping up like this lately, “I mean, uh, bud. Buddy. Pal.” Floundering halfway out from under the rug, he kicked at it weakly as it tangled around his ankles, “Heh, yeah. That.”

A questioning ping from Venom. **_Eddie?_**

“Ah – nothing,” Eddie studiously concentrated on arranging his jello limbs. His head swam. A little tendril poked out from fish-Venom and jabbed the TV off vengefully. “Thanks, Vee.”

**_You’re welcome._** Neither of them appreciated the vertigo when Eddie tried to prise himself further up off the floor. **_Nrrrghhh. Eddie, let us get rid of this dumb bug._**

“Yeah, still a no to that,” Eddie could feel how achy and utterly, miserably shite his space goo was feeling from the lack of heads alone, and how it was only made that much more hellish by the damned virus.

Thinking was easier than talking, so he continued silently, _Not that I don’t appreciate the offer, but I_ know _you’re so not up to it right now. I’m not having you heal me if it only serves to make things worse_ _for you – and I can sense that it really, really will, Vee, so don’t you try telling me it won’t._

**_Hmph. Stupid germs._ **

If Eddie hadn’t already been sure, Venom’s lack of a proper response would have confirmed it.

There was a definite touch of embarrassment to their grumble and, beneath it, a deeper coil of darker emotion, very much like they were intensely berating themselves for their weakness or failure as a symbiote or some such crap.

“Nope,” Eddie wasn’t having any of that, “No, Vee. Nuh-uh. You stop that.”

**_Stop what?_** Venom projected a feeling of innocent bewilderment, as if they had no idea what he could possibly be referring to.

“Stop beating yourself up,” Grabbing the back of the couch for balance, Eddie sent them a mental poke – not too hard, “You rock, all right? You’re the best.”

**_E-Eddie –_ **

Venom sort of mentally – _bubbled_ – as their embarrassment flared, mixed with a whole lot of whirling emotions and – and _colours_ , amazingly, bursting across their bond in a way that had never happened before, blue shot through with brilliant silver –

Before they did a sort of internal nose dive, smacked in the face – as it were – by the vertigo.

**_Guh. Fuck. This sucks balls._ **

“ _Guh_ ,” Eddie similarly reeled, “Yeah, yeah it does. It sucks old balls. Really old, saggy balls.”

Rather than adding further adjectives like he was expecting, Venom instead observed, **_Not like yours._** ** _Yours are perfect.  
_**

“Um – really?” Eddie’s face flushed so hotly he reeled all over again. He also had to resist the urge to reach down to adjust said balls, “Ah _,_ thanks bud.”

**_You’re welcome_**.

Chuckling a little, rubbing his cheeks on the back of his wrist, Eddie lurched into the kitchen to force down half a glass of water, pausing queasily when it threatened to come back up, and then sipping at the rest of it as Venom took over his stumbling feet, directing them towards the bedroom.

**_Bed._ **

“Uh – yeah,” Eddie’s heart thumped at the word however he told himself there was no reason for it, “No wait, shower.” He flailed briefly in the direction of the bathroom, “Feeling – _ick_. Will probably drown, but. Shower would be good. Or bath.”

**_Cleanliness would be good._** Venom was likewise feeling ‘ick’. **_Would_ never _let you drown, but – shower later. Bed first._** They expounded this time, **_Sleep._**

“Hah, yeah,” Eddie wasn’t disappointed. They hadn’t discussed The Thing That Happened In The Shower That Time – just one more thing they hadn’t talked about – and he absolutely wasn’t disappointed, not a jot –

(As in, of course he was bloody disappointed. Even if his dick was expressing its profound doubt about its current ability to get it up).

– And anyway, as they had just been discussing, Eddie was supremely gross, given the snot and the aftermath of the vomit and the – yeah. So really, he could totally understand Venom not wanting any of it right now.

**_Not gross, Eddie._ **

A beat.

**_Well, your lungs are currently full of gunk and we don’t even want to think about the state of some of your other organs. You pick your nose when you’re drunk but get wound up about the ‘need’ to fart discreetly – trust us, it never, ever is discreet; seriously, just get on with it – and if we didn’t remind you, you’d frequently forget to wash your hands after you pee. You scratch many areas of your body multiple times most days and voluntarily eat some of the_ weirdest _shit._**

“Yeah, guess I’m grosser than most, huh,” Spluttering with laughter, Eddie removed his hand from his arse – which he definitely hadn’t in any way been scratching – caught by the memory of Venom’s reaction back when Anne had convinced him to try fermented soybeans at their local sushi place.

Having predictably nabbed a mouthful, his space slime had been grumpily sticky for _days_.

**_The natto tasted good, at least._** Worn out from their speech, Venom sent him the equivalent of a shrug, **_Anyway, humans as a species are gross. But so are Klyntar – and Eddie?_**

“Uh-huh?” Wondering just what he was in for, Eddie pre-emptively winced.

**_We told you before in the shower._** Blue and silver ripples of emotion wove across their bond, twined this time with deep indigo amusement. **_You’re gorgeous._**

“ _Uh –_ ” Not having expected this _at all_ , Eddie promptly fell over his own feet, saved only by Venom’s quick reflexes, “No way am I – What, you really think that?”

**_I do._ **

His heart rabbited, skin prickling with the memory of everything they said – and did – to each other that time in the shower. “I kind of thought that might have been just, uh. You know, the heat of the moment.”

Suddenly having the plague slash flu slash evil-sick-bug-from-hell didn’t seem that important.

**_Of course it wasn’t._ You’re _the best._**

A huge _vat_ of soppy emotions swelled up irrepressibly inside Eddie and he was unable to stop himself from beaming, mega-watt.

“Aw thanks, Vee,” he sent them the mental equivalent of a big squishy hug, “Love you too.”

**_E-Eddie –_** Venom shuddered _hard_.

They were doing their utmost to ignore the need for live food, weren’t they, in a way they never really had before, just as they were enduring Eddie’s illness, however it ate at them not to be able – or permitted – to fix it.

But their hunger still _burned_.

“Seriously bud, would it help if you took a bite out of my spleen or something?” Aching for them, Eddie chewed his lip.

No reply.

Eddie blinked, “Vee?”

Still nothing, except for a faint hum that filtered across to his side of the bond much like an ‘engaged’ tone.

“Venom?” He tried anyway, on the edge of worry, “You okay?”

Had something happened just now? Did he say something weird? His zombie brain preoccupied with the effort it took to stumble into his bedroom on his jello legs, Eddie stridently attempted to cast his woolly thoughts back.

**_Uh._** Stirring, Venom shook themselves mentally, sounding oddly –

Uncertain. Careful: that way they had used to get back when Eddie first tried giving them things and they didn’t know how to react, but magnified now by, like, a thousand. 

**_Um – no, Eddie. That is, eating your spleen would not help. Maybe your appendix, but –_ **

“But?” Fighting out of his clothes took too much effort. Giving up after an extremely half-hearted attempt, Eddie collapsed face first onto the bed. He groaned in both relief and at how ill he still felt, “Ughhh.”

**_Ughhh._** Venom’s echoing groan still seemed a touch shaken.

Removing his face from the pillow enough for speech, Eddie decided insistence was necessary, “ _Are_ you okay, Vee? You know, aside from the hunger and ill. Kind of getting the impression I freaked you out.”

**_We’re okay. Aside from the hunger and ill. And you didn’t freak us out. Just – surprised us, that’s all._ **

“Shit, my bad,” Still not fully convinced, Eddie scrunched his face up, shoving his arm over his forehead.

**_Stop berating yourself,_** For all Venom said this very firmly, the touch of their thoughts against his was a caress, **_It wasn’t a bad thing._** And then, **_We’re never going to eat any part of you again._**

“Really?” Eddie wasn’t – well, he couldn’t say he was entirely surprised by this last bit. His space goo hadn’t threatened to chomp his organs for quite some time now. Even so – “You know, I don’t mind if you nibble something nonessential if it’d help. You can just repair whatever after we’ve got you a proper meal, right?”

**_No._ **

“No? As in, you can’t repair it or –”

**_Of course we could repair it._** Venom manifested a little head just so they could narrow their opalescent eyes at him. **_But we’re not going to._**

“But –” Feeling more and more stupid as his zombie brain sought to surrender to unconsciousness, Eddie squinted at them blearily, “Why _wouldn’t_ you eat part of me, if it’d help?” Swallowing a whole series of yawns, he flapped a hand up to cup it around his little black gloop, tugging them close. “I don – don’t get it. Or wou-wouldn’t it help?”

**_Silly Eddie._** Their tiny tongue swiped his cheek. **_Never want to hurt or harm you in any way._**

“That’s –” The rest of Eddie's reply died unnoticed in his throat.

Venom was _glowing_. Sparkling threads of silver and blue replacing the usual white, interspersed with the occasional shot of gold, the colours reflected in their opalescent eyes.

“Um –” Unless this was Eddie hallucinating, of course.

**_Not hallucinating._ **

“Oh –” He couldn’t stop smiling at them. Couldn’t stop touching them either, petting them, running the ball of his thumb over their little head, watching the way the colours danced, “It’s beautiful.” _You’re beautiful._

**_Ah –_** Venom ducked into the touch. They didn’t quite stutter, but certainly gave off the impression of it. ** _Thank you._**

They stayed like that for a while, just looking at each other, until Eddie sneezed, breaking the moment.

“Shit.”

**_Here,_** A tendril scooped up a wad of the tissues Anne had deposited in key locations around the apartment.

Accepting them, Eddie dutifully wiped, “Thanks.”

Venom gently headbutted his jaw. **_Now sleep._**

“Yeah,” he slept _–_

And on waking several hours later, thankfully felt better for it, still ill but not as nearly dead. Rolling over, Eddie extracted himself from the sheets carefully so not to disturb his sleeping symbiote. They felt heavy inside him and he wrapped his arms around his midriff, picturing cradling them in his chest. Creeping to the door of the apartment, he slipped on his sneakers.

**_Mm?_** Venom stirred.

_‘S all right._ Eddie sent a thread of reassurance across their bond, _Just going to get something from Mrs Chen’s. You rest._

**_Mm okay._ **

Everything felt unreal in the very early hours of the morning, especially with his still floppy limbs and zombie head. In the midst of giving her teenage nephew strict instructions on his upcoming shift, Mrs Chen was thankfully unperturbed by Eddie’s appearance – if somewhat critical of his plague-like state – accustomed as she was to their occasional late night chocolate emergencies, and just slipped some sort of herbal tea in with his purchases with strict instructions to “drink it and not piss about.”

**_What did you get?_** Venom woke up further when Eddie was back in their apartment, staring at the box on the kitchen counter while he waited for the kettle to boil, tea spooned in readiness into a cup.

“Medicine. And eighty percent dark.” The latter was usually reserved for special occasions.

**_Eighty percent?_** Venom unfurled inside him in interest.

“Yeah, you deserve it,” Eddie gave the underside of their chin a rub when they pushed a small tendril out of his bicep, forming a head on the end to happily investigate the chocolate while he poured the water into his cup.

**We _deserve it. You have some too._** Making swift work of their treat as they were, Venom nevertheless easily picked up on his hesitance when Eddie turned back to the box, **_Eddie?_**

“Yeah?” Chasing a sip of the tea with a piece of the chocolate, Eddie took the pills out but did nothing further.

Similar hesitance trickled from Venom’s side of their bond, like they weren’t sure they should say anything, so he sent them a wordless ‘it’s okay; go for it.’

Venom still sounded not quite tentative all the same. **_You hate pills._ **

“I – yeah. I do,” He’d had to take a lot of them as a child. And as a teenager. And sometimes as an adult too – especially the Prozac variety. And he hadn’t always been anywhere as near as sensible with them as he should.

He’d been fucking stupid with pills once in honesty, after which he'd done his utmost to avoid them.

This was something else they hadn’t discussed. Eddie knew Venom knew, but it still wasn't something he could talk about.

**_You don't need to talk about it unless you want to._** There was a note of gentleness to their voice. **_We believe it might help?_**

“Yeah, I know. Maybe, uh. Someday,” Eddie swallowed around the tightness in his throat, “So, you can – you know, take what we need to get better from the medicine, right.”

**_Yes._** Navigating one out of the packet, Venom licked at it experimentally. **_We can take the necessary chemicals and utilise them straight away. Want us to eat them for you?_**

“Would you mind?” Damn it. Distancing himself mentally as they sorted out the amount they required, tears of relief prickled at Eddie’s eyes as he cursed himself for being weak.

**_No problem._** In seconds the pills were gone and the rest put away. **_Eddie, you’re not weak. Not at all.  
_**

“M-Mm,” Eddie trembled a bit at the affection they were projecting; at the wonderful size and strength of them as Venom manifested enough of a body to coax him into their arms. He fell against them gratefully, “Thanks, lo ** _–_** uh, bud.”

There was a ripple of something he didn’t manage to quite identify, something almost like  _–_ disappointment. Gone the moment Eddie sensed it, swallowed by all of their fondness.

“Vee?”

**_Don’t worry about it._** A large hand cupped Eddie’s head, their claws smoothing carefully through his hair. **_Are you okay?_**

“Yeah,” It wasn’t exactly due to his illness that Eddie buried his face in their shoulder, even if he told himself it was, “Yeah, I am now.” He could already feel the difference as Venom got to work with those chemicals; his space goo was just that effective. “You’re good at this stuff.”

**_At taking care of you?_** Venom leaned into him in return until Eddie was wonderfully all but surrounded, their presence engulfing his senses. His heart feeling like it expanded, he shut his eyes tight.

“Uh-huh.”

There was another little pause. Not quite the 'engaged' tone again, but still significant.

**_Eddie, taking care of you is the_ only _thing that matters._** Venom then abruptly burst out, a pang of sharp-edged regret slicing across their bond. **_Next time we won’t get so distracted; I’ll make sure we don’t need to take medication you hate. Won’t let you get ill again._**

“Hey,” Realising he was clutching at them, Eddie couldn’t make himself stop, “Hey, quit it – no blaming yourself. Neither of us expected it, but humans just get germs and bugs sometimes, okay? It happens. _I_ should have been more alert to how long it’d been since you ate properly, too.”  He gave them a mental and physical poke to drive his next point home, “And I beg to differ on the ‘only Eddie matters’ thing, pal. Taking care of _you_ is fucking important too.”

**_H-hmph. If you say so._** If it was possible for alien gloop to awkwardly blush, Eddie was pretty sure at this point Venom achieved it.

“I definitely say so,” He couldn’t repress a grin in response, well aware he was flooding their bond with a ton of soppy emotions a second time. At least he wasn’t alone in that. “Right, talking about taking care of you –”

**_Of us._ **

“Yeah, of us. Let’s go get us some heads.”

**_Eddie,_** Venom pulled back just a little, **_Yes, but – before that, first can we – I want – do you want to –_**

“Mm, what is it?” Eddie drew back likewise, just enough that they could see each other, realising as soon as he caught sight of those shimmering opalescent eyes that he knew _exactly_ what Venom was trying to ask.

_Yeah._ He had to gulp a great big breath in, shaky with a massive surge of want, _Yeah I want to kiss you, love.  
_

He consciously allowed himself to say it this time.

**_E-Eddie –_** A bright feeling lanced through them both as Venom shivered.

“Yes,” Clutching at their shoulders again, Eddie pushed himself up. _Vee –_

**_Yes –_ **

And then they were kissing, mouth to mouth in the cool dim early morning light creeping into the kitchen: deep, needy kisses that made Eddie’s head spin and made them forget all about being hungry and ill; wet, ravenous chocolate-flavoured kisses that made him groan and whimper as strong hands cupped his ass, lifting him up until he was sitting on the counter, Venom shaping their body to fit between his knees. Kisses that Eddie was sure probably did Mean Something, that he _wanted_ to Mean Something –

**_Eddie Eddie Eddie,_** Tendrils were winding around him, brushing at skin, tucking in under the gaps in his clothes, **_Yes,_ _we want it to Mean Something too –_**

“ _Fuck – Vee_ –” Moaning, Eddie sucked at their tongue –

Until an awful stab of horrible rending _Hunger_ made them break apart.

**_Fuck –_ fuck _._** Venom sounded near besides themselves, **_Sorry Eddie; we’re sorry – I just want to kiss you and not – not this. You shouldn’t have to feel it too._**

“Hey, you shared the plague with me; I can share this with you,” Eddie ran his fingers through their spiralling strands, stroking them as they tucked themselves back into his body, feeling just how bloody _exhausted_ they still were from not feeding properly for too long, how much it still hurt.

Now the worst of the hell virus had faded, their hunger was rushing back all the more acutely, tearing them up from the inside out.

“Hey,” Swallowing down the remaining tea, grimacing just a little at the bitter taste, Eddie hopped down off the counter and located the apartment keys, stepping back into his sneakers. Not quite sure if he was overstepping, but deciding to ask anyway, “You want me to drive this time?”

He didn’t mean on his bike.

**_Y-you –_** Venom stirred tiredly inside him, a complicated tangle of emotions spilling from them, swirls of green-black-blue, **_Do you – ah. Would you really be willing to?_**

“Yes, I'm willing to,” Eddie was intently aware no previous host had _ever_ asked this of Venom and not intended it as a means of hurting or killing them. But _–_

But he couldn’t feel any uncertainty from them all the same, only a bone deep sense of trust and aching gratitude, enough that it pierced his chest and made his eyes sting.

**_Would you mind?_ **

“Of course I don’t mind,” Eddie nudged at their side of the bond, taking the reins as it were; following the weave of that mental bracelet until he reached Venom and the parts of his symbiote that closed around him when they became _Them_.

He crossed to the window rather than the door. In this moment, the height wasn't enough to bother him at all.

“I’ll wake you for breakfast when we find some bad guys,” Eddie promised, his hand on the latch, ready to transform and climb outside.

**_Love you, Eddie,_** was Venom’s reply, and then they were sleeping, the dreaming centre of them curled up in his heart.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for comments and kudos last chapter! :D And a big thank you for reading this fic <3
> 
> Long final chapter (bit over 9K). Here's the unexpected peril mentioned in the tags, a brief appearance from an unnamed OC for plot reasons, and Eddie gets to level up. Also they finally Talk About It and there's much smut.
> 
> TW for that peril, some not that graphic violence, mentions of blood and off-screen people eating, all in the first half. Refers to canon character death (Dora Skirth).

The sixth time it happened they were dying. _Dying_ dying. Like, really.

Okay, pause. Rewind a bit.

It was two days after their Big Damn Kiss in the kitchen. Eddie had managed to track down a morally irredeemable – and disturbingly tasty – offender for an early breakfast, providing his space goo with the nutrients they so very badly needed. The rest of the time they’d spent sleeping, recovering from Eddie’s illness and that awful, unbearable hunger.

This was the first occasion they were up and about post all that. Eddie had been intending to chat with a couple of contacts for a few hours, before a pit stop at IHOP or the like – Venom wanted pancakes – and a shop to stock up on chocolate and other essentials at Mrs Chen’s. After that, takeout to celebrate their return to health, and probably Netflix for him while Venom caught up on chatting with their online BFFs. And then –

Well, neither Eddie nor Venom had put that ‘and then’ into words, but at the very thought of it, anticipation had been buzzing under their skin.

So that had been the plan. Given their currently perilous status however, it went without saying things hadn’t worked out.

Eddie had got as far as reaching the out of the way coffee shop his first contact had insisted on meeting in, a woman formerly employed as a low ranked Life Foundation scientist who was willing to talk about some of Drake’s shady yet lesser known experiments pre-symbiotes. There was an article in it if Eddie could get proof, further evidence to bring to light about Drake’s wrongdoings –

But also he – _they_ – just wanted to know.

Anyway it was possible Eddie had been a little distracted, a little taken off guard because, on meeting the woman, she had reminded him inescapably of Dora Skirth: older and with a different last name, but the same dark hair and eyes, soft and a bit nervous.

It turned out she was Dora’s aunt.

The conversation had inevitably turned to Dora’s children, painfully young and sorely missing their mother, not understanding why she wasn’t coming back.

**_Eddie –_ **

Distracted by grief and regret and a fresh burst of anger at Carlton Drake, Eddie nonetheless didn’t fail to notice half a dozen identically dark clad figures filing into the coffee shop. The woman’s previously shy but amiable expression changed, her eyes narrowing as her face hardened.

“This isn’t my fault,” she hissed, “They’ve been watching you for some time, Mr Brock, and, awful as they are, they’ve given me the chance for revenge. _You’re_ at fault, you and that thing. Dora died because of _you_.”

**_She did_** **not,** Venom started hotly, only just refraining from saying this aloud via Eddie’s mouth, while Eddie was mentally poking them, trying to ask ‘who are 'they'?’ –

The woman stood up, pulling a weapon out of her purse that looked like something straight out of Star Trek.

“It’s time for you to pay for it,” She raised it with shaking hands.

“Don’t do this,” Even as Eddie held his hands up disarmingly, Venom gave him enough of a nudge at the base of the spine he shot upright in his seat.

**_Eddie, that doesn’t smell like a gun._ **

_Yeah, doesn’t look like one either._ Broadcasting his movements, Eddie carefully stood, feeling Venom tensing in readiness. He sent a wordless ‘not yet’ across their bond. _Let me handle this for the moment?_

**_Fine,_** Venom sent back a wave of wary indigo _agreement_ laced with copper _trust_ , **_But if they try to hurt you, we’ll bite their heads off._**

_Come on Vee, you know it’s fucking important we avoid these guys trying to hurt you too,_ Eddie sent them back his version of mental eye-rolling, even as his insides melted at that shining copper colour.

**_Hmph, like they’d be able to._** Despite their braggadocio, Venom was cautiously considering the not-guns the dark clad newcomers were sporting, the same as Dora's aunt. The power cells inside the weapons smelled odd, not unlike ozone mixed together with something else, something Eddie didn’t recognise but Venom did.

**_They’re_ ** **_using technology –_ **

The thought slipped from them over to Eddie, who completed it seamlessly

– _from another world._ He blinked. _Okay, what the fuck._

Since when had Life Foundation goons had space weapons? This wasn’t a good sign.

**_A bastardised version of 'space weapons'. But Eddie, we don’t think these morons are Life Foundation, aside from Older Skirth._ **

Eyeing the not-guns, Eddie noted the shop staff going to ground in a manner that looked noticeably rehearsed – they had either been paid off or were in on it. And for all his relief there were no other patrons, in hindsight this seemed suspicious in itself.

_Agreed. Although, Vee honey, we already know her last name isn’t ‘Skirth’._

“You both deserve to be punished,” Dora’s aunt was gripping her weapon resolutely, her expression fierce despite the wetness of her eyelashes.

**_Eddie –_** Venom swelled inside him, bubbling right under the surface of Eddie’s skin.

_I know, Vee; I_ know _, but –_ He internally grimaced, _Hold off just one more second, just in case we can talk her around._

**_Just_ ** **one _more second.  
_**

“I’m sorry,” Ignoring the dark clad figures, Eddie addressed Dora’s aunt, regret clogging his throat, “I’m so sorry about your niece. I wish things had gone differently.”

Shaking her head, the woman aimed the not-gun at his chest, “That doesn’t mean anything to her kids –”

**Eddie!**

– She pulled the trigger.

Venom _surged_ , closing around Eddie, tucking him deep inside as they swiftly became _them_ –

Too late.

The world burst with pale blue light, split by the most horrendous caterwauling _noise_ , seemingly designed for the express purpose of drilling inside a human’s skull to reach their symbiote and to tear said symbiote apart.

Doubling over with his hands clasped uselessly over his ears, his eyes stinging madly as Venom jerked and shrieked in agony both inside and outside of his body, Eddie caught a wild glimpse of the six dark clad figures moving forwards to form a circle around him, raising their weapons likewise.

“It’s best you both die now, Mr Brock,” Not-Skirth told them, or something like it.

“ _No, don’t –!”_

**_Ed-die –_** Venom was straining for Eddie across their bond. Eddie reached back just as desperately –

_Vee!_

**_E-Edd –_ **

“Kill them!” Dora's aunt shouted, and the other weapons all fired.

Then there was pain and pain and pain and pain and _pain_ –

Venom screaming and Eddie screaming, the unearthly noise flaying them from the inside out as they broke the table and several chairs, collapsing onto the floor. Eddie’s nose and ears were bleeding, his eyes felt like they were bleeding; he was coughing and choking on blood –

Venom was flailing, ragged attempts at tendrils bursting out of Eddie, thwacking into other tables and chairs, Not-Skirth and the goons all backing out of range even as they continued to fire.

**_N-no –_ **

“ _No –_ ”

Eddie could _feel_ their bond fraying. He could _feel_ Venom being dragged out of him however they mentally and physically clung to each other, tendrils snapping even as they sought to wrap around his hands as he clawed at the broken floor –

**_E – Edd – E –_ **

Eddie could feel his own organs struggling, battered by the onslaught of the alien weapons until they felt like they were going to implode. He could feel Venom battling to do anything they could to prevent this happening, straining to heal him even as they themselves were dying _–_

Oh fucking _fuck, no –_

No no no no no oh my god –

_He could feel_ _Venom dying._

Dora’s aunt was watching them, her face lit up by the pale and crackling blue glow, her gaze on them unflinchingly. Their bond was withering, down to the last few strands, and even those were tearing fast. And Eddie –

**_Ed_** – ** _die_ **–

– Eddie had had _Enough_.

No one was fucking torturing his space goo. No one was tearing apart their bond and taking Venom away from him. Because seriously?

_“Fuck. This. Shit.”_

Squeezing his eyes closed, he plunged mentally down the tiny tattered meagre remains of their bond. _Venom love, answer me –_

Desperately imagining the strands of it, Eddie pictured weaving them back together, stitching them where they were shredded and torn. Building their bond back up from nothing where needed, mending it piece by piece, strengthening it where it was broken. And as he imagined this  _–_

It happened. It _happened_ , but –

_Vee?_

There, at the very far end of their bond, where there was usually Venom –

Was a blank. A vast empty space.

A vast empty space with the teeniest, tiniest black speck in it. Nearly battered away into nothingness by all the pain.

Nearly gone.

_Oh Vee,_ Eddie scooped up that metaphorical speck in both hands, cradling it against his chest. His heart hurting more than it ever had. _Oh love.  
_

There was no answer.

_I’m going to fix this._ Eddie told Venom fiercely, picturing them as they should be; picturing his own failing body put to rights as well. _I’m going to fix_ us _. I'm so sorry I asked you to wait when we should have acted, but we’re going to get out of this okay_ , _I swear. I’ll figure out a way to undo all the damage and we’ll never be apart, we’ll never, ever be parted. So – no giving up, okay?_

Silence.

Silence from Venom’s side of their bond. Silence and emptiness, and –

Nothing. No response.

Terrible fear sought to shoot through Eddie. Snarling, he shoved it away.

_Fucking hell, Vee, don’t you_ dare _let them take you from me. I mean it, I will kick your ass so bad if you go and die on me, and after that I’ll go get Anne to kick it_ _worse –_

And –

And.

At long, _long_ last, there came the smallest response. A tiny flash of silver and blue from his space goo. An unspoken impression of Eddie's name.

_Venom –?  
_

Outside of their shared mental space, there on the floor of the coffee shop, tears of heartfelt relief spilled down Eddie’s cheeks.

**_E-d-die –?_ **

Their voice was tiny and faint, the quietest he’d ever heard it, but it was Venom. They were there. They were there and just about still alive, and – and –

_Oh – oh Vee,_ Eddie was crying harder without even realising it, his whole body shaking with it, _Thank fuck – Vee –_

**_E-ddie._ **

Swelling larger, the speck of goo abruptly lost its form within Eddie's cupped hands, collapsing into a puddle. The tiniest tendrils crept out from it, straining towards the pulse points in his wrists, the wordless feeling of a question pinging across their bond.

_Yes._ Eddie said this with his whole self, his whole heart. He said it again for good measure. _Yes._ _I'm here. I’ve got you._

Tenderly coaxing the puddle back inside his body, he imagined tucking Venom in alongside all of the pieces of his own self, slotting them together, matching them in all the many ways they fit.

_Hey, Vee?_

Venom trembled with the pain and effort of it as they stirred, **_Mm?_**

_I don't need to figure anything out._ Despite everything, Eddie found that he smiled, _I_ know _how to heal us._

And he did know.

Because if Venom could heal Eddie, then _Eddie_ could heal _Venom_. Just like he'd mended their bond.

_Ready?_

**_Ready. But first –_** Venom stirred again, straining even harder this time, mentally reaching out towards Eddie with all the strength they had left –

_What is it, Vee?_

**_Here_ **

– and passed him full access to their power and abilities, absolutely nothing held back. Handing him the metaphorical keys to themselves.

Gifting Eddie the sum total of everything they were.

_V-Venom –!_ Eddie’s heart didn’t feel like it imploded. It didn't precisely explode either.

Instead it went _supernova_.

Outside of the shared mental space of their bond, there in the coffee shop turned previously one-sided battleground, his eyes opened.

“ _Oh_ –” Brilliant threads of light erupted out from Eddie’s hands, spiralling up his arms in complex swirls of luminous copper, silver and gold, entwined with brightest white and darkest black. They spread over his shoulders and chest before travelling up his neck, tracking in rivulets over his chin and cheeks, and pooling into his eyes. The light seemed to swallow the blood from his skin, wiping it away from existence, just as it wiped away the damage to man and symbiote.

Except it wasn’t the light healing them. It was Eddie. Repairing the harm done to himself and his symbiote almost without thinking about it; blocking the noise from hurting Venom.

His lips pulling back into a grin that showed too many teeth, Eddie stood up.

People were yelling; the weapons still firing. The colours dancing around him obliterated the blue glow as he healed the damage done by each blast so quickly it was as if there was none done at all.

Turning, Eddie looked at Not-Skirth and the half-dozen dark clad figures with incandescent eyes. Several broke rank, stumbling backwards even as they continued to fire. Dora’s aunt’s mouth was moving in obvious panic.

“Die,” she was gasping, “You're supposed to _die_ –”

**_“Not today, thanks,”_** Eddie told her pleasantly.

“ _Hydra will destroy you_ ,” she hissed and, well, that answered _that_ question. She also tried to turn the weapon on herself, at which point Eddie darted over to her with all of Venom’s speed, and knocked her out as gently as possible.

**_Mind the others,_** Venom stirred as Eddie caught her and set her down, drawing his attention to the fact that, rather than fleeing like anyone sensible, the six dark clad figures had taken the opportunity to regroup.

_Yeah, I see them._ His eyes alight with swirling colours, Eddie glanced over at the identically dressed goons. For all they were members of an evil squid-worshipping cult, he still felt it only fair to ask, **_“Any of you want to give up or do you fancy being food for my better half?”_ **

“Hail Hydra,” was the chorused reply.

**_“Yeah, I don’t think so,”_** Walking straight through the weapons’ blasts towards the first of the goons, Eddie plucked the gun out of their hands and nudged his space goo. _Hey Vee, fancy some morons for lunch?_

**_You're so good to us, Eddie._** Sending him the impression of a toothily appreciative grin, Venom took over.

Things didn’t take long after that.

Once the coffee shop was occupied by significantly fewer people and a carefully yet precisely stacked pile of space weapons they unfortunately didn't have any safe means of destroying or disposing of, together Venom and Eddie devoured every single pastry from the selection next to the cash register in the otherwise ruined shop.

It wasn’t as if they were hungry after their large lunch. Instead they just ate them in petty revenge.

Well, and also because those frosted chocolate nut ones were bloody delicious.

“Hey, Vee?” The sound of sirens growing louder outside alerting them to the necessity of making a timely escape, Eddie waggled one of his glowing arms around without noticeable effect, “How do I turn the light show off?”

Restored by the healing but bloated from their indulgent lunch, Venom was a little slow to answer. Even so, they felt discernibly _smug_.

**_No idea._ **

“No idea?” Spluttering, Eddie glanced over at Dora’s aunt, still unconscious where they’d left her. He shouldered through a door and into the staff area at the back of the coffee shop, locating a fire exit, “What, you telling me –”

**_That this has never happened before? Correct._** Venom's smugness was only increasing. But beyond that, they also felt –

Immensely and genuinely _delighted_.

“Hm? What is it?” Heading outside, Eddie scaled a couple of buildings without even thinking about it. Without ‘suiting up’ or feeling any fear of the height; without any effort at all.

**_Hmm._** Venom's delight was making Eddie smile as well, making him glow even _more,_ damn it – vibrant blues and greens twisting in spiralling streamers over his skin, braiding together with the metallic ones. And Eddie –

Eddie was abruptly certain he knew what the light show signified. The thought passed effortlessly between them once again.

_It's proof –_

**_– of our bond._ **

“Which means – uh,” Vaulting over onto a rooftop, Eddie finally managed to damp down on the light show thanks to a couple of mental nudges from Venom –

_There?_

**_We think so. Try there_ **

– and their shared determination. He resumed their conversation after unintentionally scaring a flock of pigeons, “Does it mean that, you know, instead of becoming _Venom_ like we’ve always done before when we’re us, well. Instead –”

**_Yes_. **A sense of gorgeous deep purple _satisfaction_ coloured the delight still spilling from Venom, **_We became_ Eddie _._**

“Well, fuck me,” Eddie couldn't help it; he beamed.

**_I will,_** was Venom's response, **_After we digest._**

“ _Guh_ –” Promptly tripping over the edge of a rooftop, Eddie came extremely close to falling six storeys to land on his face.

Except he didn’t, of course. His alien goo caught him.

After that, once they were safely down on ground level and away from trip hazards, it took a while to convince his phone it wanted to work – Eddie was frankly surprised when it did – and to call Dan at the hospital and tell him an edited version of what had happened, requesting he look out for Not-Skirth. Dan, being the saint that he was, willingly agreed to take on the case of a Hydra ex-scientist who was obviously confused when it came to any talk of goo-monsters, and to see she had all the help she was willing to accept.

While they would need to be careful to ensure the woman didn’t make another attempt to get at them and to check she could successfully be drawn away from Hydra, Eddie couldn’t deny wanting to avoid eating Dora’s aunt if at all possible.

Having made their farewells to Dan, Eddie next rang Anne for good measure.

The call went through to answerphone, which meant she was at work and thus saved Eddie and Venom the likelihood of being scolded for their near miss, something that would no doubt happen at a later point. They left a joint somewhat sheepish message and Eddie extended an invitation for the couple to come over for dinner sometime before ringing off.

Venom did the mental equivalent of blinking in surprise, **_You haven’t even thought about cooking for anyone other than us since –_**

“Since back when Annie rightfully dumped my stupid ass, I know,” Eddie caught the tendrils that slipped between his fingers, squeezing them affectionately as he climbed the stairs to their apartment.

If Hell Neighbour caught sight of him in the ragged remains of his blood-stained hoodie, well. The asshole had seen worse.

**_You don’t feel sad anymore when you think about Anne,_** Venom sneaked a tendril out of the back pocket of Eddie’s jeans, key in the hand they then manifested.

“I haven’t for a long time now, love,” Pushing the door shut behind them, Eddie kicked his sneakers off into a corner, “I think there’s a reason for that.”

**_Mm?_** Venom hesitated.

Hopeful but not quite daring to presume.

“Yeah, I mean because of you,” Failing at hiding his smile, well aware he was shovelling his affection for his space goo over their bond, Eddie staggered into the kitchen for a drink.

**_E-Eddie_** –

At least he couldn’t be too embarrassed given Venom was similarly sending a whole lot of adorably flustered affection right back.

“Never did go shopping, did we,” After downing what felt like a few gallons of water, Eddie ran his hands over his face and through his hair, feeling them spill almost entirely out of his body to go and do – something – elsewhere in the apartment. Peering in the distressingly empty cupboards, he groped around in hope of locating a stray something at the back.

“Damn, no snacks,” Eddie was forced to conclude after unearthing no more than a pop-tarts box _sans_ contents and a box of Unknown Health Food from Anne and Dan neither he nor Venom had ever been able to convince themselves to eat. Setting both aside, he slumped on the kitchen counter in defeat.

**_We can go out and buy snacks later,_** came his space goo’s entirely uncharacteristic reply.

“Wow, you sure?” Chuckling a little, Eddie peeled himself back up, discovering tendrils stretching all the way into the bathroom. _Hmm._ “Vee?”

**_Come here, Eddie, and take a bath._ **

“Oh, okay. Though I thought you were going to, um –” His eyebrows rising, unable to refrain from glancing in the direction of the bedroom, Eddie followed the trail of tendrils and the sound of running water –

And the decided sense of anticipation he soon began sensing from his space alien. Venom was _planning_ something, weren’t they, and it certainly wasn’t just ‘take a bath’.

“Venom?” Peeking into the bathroom, Eddie found his very own symbiote barely contained within the small room as they wove together their massive humanoid body.

**_Hello, Eddie_.**

“Hey, Vee. What you doing?” A burst of happiness at simply seeing them going off inside him, Eddie smiled up at them.

**_This –_** Venom pounced. 

“ _Mmph!_ ” Eddie had never been so rapidly stripped in his _life_ , huge hands literally ripping off the ruined hoodie and tossing it to one side –

**_We liked that one. Fucking Hydra_ **

“Yeah, fuck them. Bastards”

**_Tasted good, though_ **

“I’m glad for you, honey, but please don’t tell me that”

– Eddie’s t-shirt following shortly thereafter, while tendrils tugged off his socks and dirty jeans.

“Vee?” Propping his arse on the side of the bath in order to aid this process, Eddie glanced at Venom in mild surprise when they failed to divest him of underwear, “Aren’t you going to –”

**_Hmm,_** Sinking down, Venom crouched on the bathroom floor between Eddie’s knees. Tipping their head, they gave him a _look._ Their mouth opening slowly, wicked teeth all on display as they awarded him their best grin. **_You were saying?_ **

“ _Mm_ – I, uh. Guh. Don’t remember,” Eddie’s stomach tightened, his cock moving visibly within the thin fabric of his shorts, “Bath?”

**_Not quite yet, Eddie._** Closing their large hands over his knees to guide his legs wider, Venom leaned in to dab their tongue against the head of Eddie's cock. **_Let us do this for you first.  
_**

“ _Ah,_ ” A spasm rocking up through his body, Eddie clutched at their broad shoulders, “Ah – yes _,_ go for it; do whatever you want. _Please_.”

**_Whatever_** **we _want,_** Venom licked him properly them, swirling their tongue around the twitching head through the fabric.

“Y-Yeah, love, ‘ _we’_ ,” Eddie couldn’t take it anymore. Letting go of them to grab at the waistband, he shimmied out of the shorts, his dick starting to swell as he wriggled the fabric down over his hips and kicked it off.

**_Eddie,_** Venom’s gaze was intent on the show.

“Yeah?” Eddie shivered a little under their regard.

**_Look at you._** Their voice was like silk.

“Oh –” All of a sudden he could see himself through Venom’s eyes, their vision at once inexplicably different and yet totally, wonderfully _right._

**_Look at how good you look._ **

“Hah, you sure you think I look good?” Eddie was naked, legs spread, his balls a bit squashed, sitting on the side of the tub. It was impossible not to notice the strands of hair going grey at his temples, shadows under his eyes and all those wrinkles lining his face.

**_Very sure._ **

But Venom saw all this and thought it _beautiful_.

“ _Oh_ –” Seeing himself through their eyes transformed the way Eddie saw himself. It didn’t matter about the slight swell of his belly after too much junk food, his muscles less defined these days thanks to hours spent hunched over his laptop or sprawled on the couch. It didn’t matter that he was scarred in places and sporting a number of tattoos he adored, and a couple he really sort of regretted. It didn’t matter that he was grimy and grubby and kind of gross from the earlier fight.

He was alive and healed, and so was Venom, and they were together – and that was what mattered. That was what was important.

“Vee,” Eddie looked at Venom looking at him and let his space goo see themselves through his eyes similarly, their minds sliding closer and closer along the woven strands of their bond until they weren't Eddie or Venom, but _them_.

“ _Gah_ –” The slop of warm water over the side of the bath – and consequently over Eddie’s arse – made him jump and squawk, spoiling the moment.

“Sorry, sorry,” Eddie half doubled over, laughing not just from the surprise, but also from the profound relief of it: of being together and all right. Of being here in their cramped, shitty little bathroom, Venom on their knees in front of him as Eddie's dick jerked between his legs with the movements of his body.

**_I’ll get it,_** Even as they were chuckling and sending out a tendril to turn off the water, Venom was eyeing Eddie’s cock.

“Thanks.” Their attention felt like an almost physical thing, Eddie’s skin prickling with the awareness of their gaze, their bond flooding with ever increasing arousal. Ass squeaking a little against the bath, he widened his legs even further, creating more room.

They both watched his dick flushing and growing in size, even though neither of them were touching it.

“ _Hah_ –” Eddie shifted again, restless with desire, “Vee, you going to –?”

**_Patience, Eddie,_** Venom’s thumbs brushed against the soft, delicate skin of his inner thighs.

Eddie took a steadying breath in, seeking calm, “Y–yeah.”

**_That's it,_** Their gaze steady on his, Venom sent a slender tendril out from Eddie’s hip, spiralling loosely up the length of his shaft to encircle the head, working gently to encourage the foreskin back to expose the glans.

“Ah – hah –” His cock thickening rapidly and beginning to rise, Eddie leaned back over the bath, seeking to angle his hips further forwards, humming in appreciation when tendrils spun out to catch and support him, allowing him to do so with more ease.

“Thanks, love,” Licking his lips, he wound a tendril around his fingers, drawing it up to nip at it as he watched Venom’s tongue unfurl again.

**_You’re welcome,_** They lapped at the sensitive glans, gentle touches that made Eddie groan, the sticky noises produced by their saliva and his precome only increasing both of their want.

“Vee, what are you – _ah!_ ” Eddie arched his back when the slender tendril nosed at his slit, his nipples crinkling into hard little nubs at the realisation of what Venom was offering, “Oh, are you going to –?”

This was something he'd never done before.

**_If you want us to._** The press of Venom’s palms was a comfort against Eddie’s knees, their fingers brushing his calves. Rather than moving them, they formed a second pair of hands, weaving the new ones together to run them up his thighs and close over his hips.

“Vee, Vee, yes, _we_ want to, come on –”

**_Yes, we very much do._** They let the slender tendril dip a centimetre inside Eddie’s slit, just testing, making him whine. **_All right?_ **

“Yeah, yes, very all right – _don’t stop_ –” Eddie was shivering, his skin breaking out into goose bumps as the tendril sank further inside him, staring down the length of his own body, unable to drag his gaze away from Venom crouching in front of him or his own juddering cock.

Fuck, he could _feel_ the tendril moving inside his shaft, his belly jolting wildly as it slid slowly down the length of his urethra until he thought it surely must have to stop –

Only for it to _continue_ in a way nothing else could, more of Venom easing into him, pouring into his balls.

“Holy – holy _fuck_ –” Panting as his gaze flicked between said balls and his space goo’s shit-eating grin, Eddie could only grin back at them, “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you.”

Venom's grin grew even wider. **We’re _enjoying this._**

“ _Hell_ yeah we are,” The tendril inside Eddie's dick pulsed, making him jump and mewl, before it detached from the swirl of Venom inside his scrotum. “Shit, Vee, I can still feel you there in my balls – _ohhh_ –”

He shuddered helplessly as the tendril changed shape into a small bead, travelling oh so slowly back up the length of his urethra **.** It felt like it was going to drag his orgasm out with it –

**_Not yet._** Their teeth tucking away neatly, Venom leaned in to lick the bead up as it popped out of his slit.

That done, they swallowed Eddie’s dick.

“ _Oh my god_ , oh my god fuck,” Eddie’s hips jerked when they sucked, his feet trying to kick and flail, tendrils whipping around his ankles to hold them in place. He would have come regardless of instruction –

Except the part of his space goo inside his balls tightened, preventing the orgasm.

“ _Nnngh_ – _!_ ” 

**_All right?_** Venom repeated silkily, pulling off Eddie’s straining cock with an obscene slurp, only to coil that tongue of theirs around it and give it an enthusiastically messy slobber.

“I'm _so_ fucking all right,” Eddie would have launched himself off the side of the bath with the force his hips jerked, had he not been effectively bound from the waist down by this point, “Fucking hell you feel so good – _Vee_ –”

**Good _._** Venom tightened the coil of their tongue around his cock, enough to make Eddie yelp.

Pulling off his dick, they then flicked the tip of their tongue over his frenulum and the exposed head of the glans, before sloppily licking the whole length of his shaft. Sucking his cock back into their mouth afterwards with obvious relish, working their tongue against the underside before sneaking it down further to tickle his balls.

Needless to say, this was all fucking _magnificent_. Especially when they repeated the process all over again.

And _again_.

“Mm – ah – _mm_ – going to come – going to come –” Eddie was soon whining throatily, his dick copiously leaking precome. It felt much as if Venom was hoovering it up, eager to swallow everything his body produced.

**_Not yet, unless you want to?_ **

“N-no – no, not yet; we want to keep feeling this –”

**_We really do._** Pleased, Venom withdrew from his dick entirely this time, lowering their head to lick at his thighs instead.

_“Mmph –! Hah – hah –”_ Eddie was going to ache tomorrow, the muscles in his legs and abdomen were jumping and twitching so much. Reaching out to his space goo with trembling hands, he stroked Venom’s chin and cheeks.

**_Not too much?_** Their care for him was like hands holding his over their bond. Eddie only had time to think this and then tendrils were swelling between his fingers, turning into a _third_ pair of hands.

_Not too much, love, not too much_ at all _–_

Eddie grasped those hands gratefully as Venom slid the second pair down from his hips to cup his ass, angling his ankles up over their shoulders with their first pair, lifting him effortlessly up off the side of the bath.

They closed their mouth over his dick even further this time, drawing him in even deeper, engulfing his balls.

“ _Uh – uh – uh_ –” Eddie couldn't stop making high pitched little noises, feeling Venom's throat work as they sucked hungrily, shoving his arousal at them over their bond, sensing their own want and need wind ever higher in response. Groaning when they released him _yet again_ from their mouth, lowering his ass back down to the edge of the bath –

Only to gently but inexorably push the part of them inside his balls up and out of his dick.

“Oh my god oh my god oh my _goddd_ –” The sight and feel of his space goo flowing up his urethra and out of his slit like a whole _fuckload_ of the world’s funkiest spunk was enough to send Eddie hurtling over the edge. “Fuck, Vee Vee _Vee_ –”

His stomach quivering, his dick fat and ruddy as he’d ever seen it, he yelled as orgasm rocketed through him, semen jetting up from his balls, up through his ultra sensitive urethra and pumping out of his slit in the direction of the ceiling –

**_Eddie –_ yes ** **–  
**

Until Venom closed their mouth back one last time over his dick, drinking his come down with gusto, making happy little sounds as they glugged it all up.

“Ahhh –” As the last tremor of orgasm faded, leaving Eddie limper than the limpest noodle to ever exist, his space goo folded themselves over his limbs and angled his sweaty, messy, _wrecked_ body into the still steaming bath.

“Hah – ah – thanks love,” His head flopping back onto the edge, cushioned at once by a tendril, Eddie's eyes opened blearily at the welcome sensation of being immersed in both the warm water and his alien putty as they slopped on top of him, shedding most of their form. He strove for enough breath to produce further words, “Vee, I want to – You didn’t –”

They hadn’t come.

**_Let us, Eddie._** While his space goo's half of the bond felt ever so hot and tight with arousal, Venom was determinedly insistent as they repeated, **_Let us do this for you first. Just relax._**

“You sure?” Eddie wasn’t expecting them to wash him, but that’s what happened –

**_Very sure_ **

– Venom taking over just enough to raise his limbs and move his body around as needed, manifesting tendrils to scoop up soap and shampoo and applying them simply, his space goo entirely focused on getting him clean.

“Mm okay,” Doing as instructed, Eddie relaxed into it, mentally broadcasting his appreciation. Once he felt Venom’s pleasure at a job well done, he gathered up a blob of shower gel himself and deposited it on the crown of their head with a satisfying squelch.

**_Eddie?_** He got a _ping_ of confusion across their bond for his efforts.

“Works both ways, Vee,” Eddie was grinning, even as he brought both hands up to massage the gel onto his alien putty's head.

**_Hmm,_** Opalescent eyes narrowed at him, but Venom was soon pushing into the feel of it, a sound very much like a purr burbling in their throat as he let his fingers press in. **_Harder, Eddie._**

Eddie’s grin crooked into a smirk.

“Harder, huh?” Deliberately misunderstanding, he pushed against their bond quite specifically, oh so accidentally brushing up against the mental feeling of all their arousal.

**_A-ah!_** Venom spasmed – and then again, when Eddie pushed harder physically as well. **_Yesss –_**

“Yeah?” Chewing his lower lip, he fished a hand down to pull out the plug and then turned on the shower, “Important we get you clean too, you know. Let _me_ do this for _you_ now, okay?”

**_Yes – Eddie, please._ **

“I’ve got you,” Eddie got busy washing every little bit of his symbiote, caressing the tendrils that presented themselves in turn, stroking lines of bubbles down the arch of Venom’s throat, following the trails of water as it pattered over his space goo.

**_Ah – mm –_ **

“Vee – This okay? This good?” Washing done with, Eddie nudged at that feeling inside his space goo again, pressing imaginary fingers against the twists and turns of the woven strands of their bond. Coaxing Venom’s arousal to spread and bloom yet further throughout every part of their being, silver and blue ribbons erupting over their skin as a result; encouraging the heat inside them to grow ever greater until the bathroom was filled with dancing light.

Knowing no one had ever touched Venom like this; that they had never even _imagined_ being touched like it –

**_Yes –_** They were shivering, almost frantic, **_Eddie_ _yes yes yes, please_ _– more_ _–_ _  
_**

_Here?_ Eddie rubbed and tugged and stroked at their bond, plucking at their manifested tendrils likewise, running his fingers through them physically and mentally. _This feels good, right? And how about here?_

**_Y-Yes, it feels good,_** Venom was rumbling fervently, clinging to him, close to overwhelmed, **So _good, Eddie. Yes, right there – hah –_ fuck _–_**

They couldn’t – they _couldn’t_ – they needed to –

**_Eddie, oh –_ _oh,_** **_please –_**

He knew what they needed.

“It’s okay,” Cupping their head in his hands, Eddie rested his forehead against Venom’s, eyes closing as they melted against him, surrounded by each other and the warm water of the shower. _It’s okay, love, it’s okay. I’ve got you; you can let go –_

His space goo shook hard. **_Y-you have, Eddie, you_ ** **have _got me –_**

“Always,” Eddie whispered, “You’ve got me too, Vee. _Always_.”

This was a promise.

**_Eddie, Eddie – A-ah –!_**

Every external part of Venom rippled wildly for a long moment as orgasm struck them. Collapsing on top of him, they turned more liquid than Eddie had ever seen them, all but shooting down the plug hole until he sent a swift mental _shit, no!_ across their bond, keeping them safely contained in the tub.

“Vee?” Eddie stroked his hands through their liquid form, feeling them slide over his skin like something between water and silk, biting his lip at the sight of the wobbly eyes that eventually opened up in the midst of his goo soup.

**_E-Eddie?_** They blinked up at him.

Eddie’s mouth was trying to form the goofiest smile. “You all right there, love?”

**_Yes._** Venom said definitively. **_We’re very all right_**. And then, **_Eddie, that –_**

They seemed almost lost for words.

“That?” Raising both eyebrows, Eddie gave their bond a little mental stroke, just enough to make his space goo quiver and gasp, “Oh, you mean _that_? This, ah –” Caressing a particularly good spot, he delighted at their moan, “This little party trick? Is _that_ what you’re talking about?”

**_Yes,_ _that’s what we’re talking about, as you well know._** Venom rebuilt their body, all teeth and tongue and wicked grin to start with, the rest of it following as they shaped themselves to fit in the bath and between his legs. **_Eddie, that was_ awesome _._ You’re _awesome._**

Smiling helplessly, his face flushing at the praise, Eddie could only shake his head, “You’re bloody awesome yourself, Vee.”

**_E-Eddie –_** Venom lunged at him.

_“Mmph!”_ Eddie couldn’t say he was surprised to be snogged half to death, wicked teeth barely retracting in time, his space goo’s tongue seemingly trying to fit its entire self down his throat. Moaning, he only choked a little before they reigned themselves in a bit, allowing him to return the kiss with equal fervour, “Mm – _Vee_ –”

**_Eddie, can we –_** Venom was squirming against him when they drew back just enough to let him get a breath in, **_We want to –_**

Yeah, Eddie knew what they wanted. What they both wanted.

“You know, I _do_ kind of remember you saying something about fucking me,” He mused. 

**_Uh-huh,_** Venom nodded, all eagerness. ** _Please Eddie, will you let us fuck you?  
_**

“Well, as you asked so nicely –” Eddie dropped a kiss on the space between their eyes, “Of course you can.”

Venom practically sat bolt upright with enthusiasm, **_Yes!_**

Hoisting themselves out of the tub, they staggered wet and naked into the bedroom, flopping down onto the mattress for more space; Eddie on his back on the damp sheets. Venom glanced down at his crotch as he parted his thighs to make room for them, and then back up at his face.

**_Hmm._ **

“Hmm?” Eddie hooked an ankle meaningfully around their waist.

**_We_ _–_ _I want –_** Venom was writhing inside with desire, **_It’s just –_**

“Just –?” Eddie nudged his heel against his space goo’s lower back, encouraging them to tilt their hips down towards him. Pushing his own hips up to meet them, positioning his ass against their groin, where there wasn’t anything currently. “You want me to make you a dick again?”

**_Yes._** Venom licked their teeth; leaned in and licked a stripe up his chest, **_We want you to make us a dick again. Please. But also -  
_**

Yeah, it wasn't just that, was it. There was something else they were after.

Something specific –

“You want me to drive again, yeah?” Eddie got it all at once. His space goo wanted him to control their body; to move them within him –

**_Is it – unappealing?_** Venom's writhe was close to shading with uncertainty. **_We don't have to – Or if you would prefer it to be the other way around –_**

“Hey – hey Vee, it's all right; we want that; I'd _love_ to,” Craning his head up to kiss the corner of their mouth, Eddie ran the ball of his thumb fondly over their teeth, “Got to admit the other way around also sounds fucking great, but –” He grinned crookedly, “Why don't we try both? You control me and I control you and, you know. We'll see how it goes.”

**_Eddie,_ yes. **Their bond thrummed with approval as Venom _purred_. **_Yes, that._**

Eddie kissed them again, “Ready?”

**_R_ _eady_** _._ Their nod was immediate.

“Okay then,” Barely even needing to think about it, Eddie imagined taking a gentle hold of the parts of his space goo still inside him, finding the areas of their bond that involved shape-shifting and giving them a nonverbal ‘ _let’s go’_.

“Oh – _ohhh_ –” Venom _expanded_ inside him right where it counted, a very suitably shaped tendril swelling within Eddie’s ass, notching neatly into place where their manifested body was touching him and becoming part of their external form, “A-ah – _Vee_ –”

**_Oh_ _–_ _ohhh Eddie, just like that_** **_–_ **

Eddie couldn’t help it: he mentally nudged the tendril into thrusting somewhat faster and deeper than it ought to go without preparation, something that would have been unpleasant under different circumstances but wasn't at all unpleasant now.

Quite the opposite, in fact.

**_Ah – Eddie, Eddie -_** Venom twitched with what felt very much like startled delight and they groaned together in approval at the stretch.

“ _Ohhh_ –” Eddie only had to think at their bond for the tendril to soften slightly and slicken, contouring _perfectly_ inside him, “Vee, yes yes yes –”

**_Ohhh Eddie, so good –_** Slipping across their bond to Eddie’s side of things, Venom took gentle control of his body, soothing his muscles and relaxing them where needed –

_Not too much, honey, we want to feel it_

**_Yes, yes we want that. Will you move us more?_ **

– Eddie gasped airlessly, “Yeah – _yeah,_ great idea.”

Mentally guiding the pace and depth, he encouraged the tendril to burrow yet further into his hole, forming it into more of a dick-like shape as it went. Placing imaginary hands on Venom’s hips, rocking them into him and then back, both of them shivering as he established a rhythm.

Fucking himself and being fucked and, in a sense, also fucking _them_.

**_Hah – Eddie – yes, just like that –_** Venom was sliding ever deeper inside his head, taking control of Eddie’s other leg to lift it up around their body as well, encouraging the muscles of his ass to clamp down on the dick Eddie had crafted for them. Feeling like they were massaging his prostate from the inside.

“Oh god – Vee – V-Venom – _oh god_ , yes _,_ just like that –” Nudging mentally at their connection again, Eddie pinged them a thought of: _larger?_

And felt Venom echo a gleeful **_yes, larger_** in response.

“Fuuuck –” Eddie threw his head back against his pillow as they swelled inside him. His mind and body craving yet more, he moaned raggedly, greedy for the feeling of being filled,  _Please, Vee – larger – larger again –?_

**_Eddie – Eddie, o-oh –_** Venom was clawing at the mattress, control slipping between them, driving into him under their own volition now, **_Yes – yes, we want that – if you’re sure?_**

“Come on, Vee; yes, I’m fucking sure,” Eddie scrabbled at their shoulders, “I want you fucking _proportional._ ” He pushed at them mentally, demanding that they thrust yet faster, deeper – and yes, _harder_ – groaning throatily when, growling, they joyfully obliged.

**_Ah!_ **

“Ah!” Both of them yelped when Venom expanded again inside him, their dick becoming – _fuck yes!_ – proportional, nailing Eddie’s prostate damn fucking _exactly_ right.

**_E-Eddie –_ **

“Yes – Vee –” They were sliding back and forth across their bond almost unnoticeably now, handing control of their bodies over to each other without thinking about it. One moment _Venom_ and then _Eddie,_ before becoming _Venom_ and then _Eddie_ again –

**_Eddie, oh – oh – oh –_ **

“ _Oh – oh – oh, Vee_ –” Brilliant light burst out from Eddie’s hands, twining upwards around him as it had previously. At the same time vibrant streamers wound around Venom, the colours intermingling between them; no discernible place in their shared mental space where one started and the other began.

**_"Fuck, come here, come here –"_ **

Then they were kissing and kissing, groaning at the pleasure of it, Venom-and-Eddie, Eddie-and-Venom, two different beings rolled up into one boundless whole as orgasm swelled up and swept over them, seeming to go on and on and on, waves of sensation that didn't seem to want to ever stop –

Later, when they were sprawled panting atop the extremely rumpled sheets, Eddie trailing his fingers through the formless mass of his space goo, Venom sort of cuddled up at him via their bond, doing the mental equivalent of waving their end of it at him, wordlessly requesting and demanding at the same time.

“Mm, all right,” It was effortless for Eddie to reach across those woven strands and build them a body, coaxing their arms around him with a thought, while Venom wrapped Eddie's own around them in return. He snuggled up to them on his side of their bond similarly, feeling them purr.

“We really like this, huh,” Smiling, he rested his cheek on their shoulder.

**_We really do,_** Venom propped their chin against the crown of his head in return, all the feelings ebbing between them warm and wonderful.

“I’m guessing it’s rare, right?” Eddie stifled a contented yawn. He snorted a bit, “Can’t imagine Riot ever allowed Drake to drive, let alone –” He tweaked their bond in demonstration, the mental equivalent of giving Venom’s ass an affectionate grope, making them yelp. “That.”

**_Eddie!_** Venom stuck their tongue in his ear in response, which triggered some squealing and batting of hands.

Eddie wasn’t really expecting his space goo to answer when they both subsided again, but they did.

**_Eddie, a host has_** **never _controlled a Klyntar in such a manner,_** Venom informed him with utmost certainty, something dark entering their voice as they continued, **_You don’t want to know what Riot would have done to Drake had he tried._**

“Yeah, I probably don't,” Eddie grimaced, “But you, ah –”

**_But I like it. I like it a lot,_** His space goo said for him plainly, although they were wriggling with something that wasn’t quite embarrassment deep inside. **_I want you to do it._** Outwardly, Venom just raised their broad shoulders in a shrug and concluded, not without humour, **_Just another way in which I am a freak._**

“No Vee, no – you’re not a freak,” Eddie shook his head insistently, hand searching for theirs, linking fingers with them, “We both like it a whole lot; there’s nothing wrong with that.” He shared the memory of their oops-faceplant into frosting and their resultant revenge. “I like that it works both ways too.”

**_No other of my kind would e_** ** _ven e_** ** _ntertain the idea of such a thing being possible._** Even as they tightened their fingers around his in return, Venom was looking at Eddie as if waiting for him to get it. **_It's_ not _possible for it to 'work both ways', in fact. A host_ can’t _control a Klyntar, not like that. We’re too good at our jobs._**

“Then how –?” Drawing their joined hands up so he could press a kiss to their knuckles, Eddie furrowed his brow, “If it’s not possible, then why can I do this?” He gave their bond a poke, coaxing a few tendrils out of them to curl around his hips, feeling the way Venom welcomed him doing this.

**_You already know the answer,_** Even as they used those tendrils to draw him closer, Venom was squirming a bit at the fact they were Talking About Their Feelings.

“It’s proof of our bond, yeah, I know.” Proof of just how very much they trusted him too.

Eddie could easily sense the truth of this answer, but that wasn’t just it, was it. Not entirely.

**_You are mine, but I am also yours,_** Their eyes closing, Venom pressed their foreheads together as Eddie had earlier, ** _I am_** **yours _, Eddie, to do with what you will._** They huffed, **_You are not just a 'host' and never will be. You’re –_**

They said the rest quickly, as if not certain how he’d respond.

**_Eddie, you’re everything. To me. You’re_ everything _to me._**

_“Vee –”_ Shaking with emotion, Eddie clutched at them, “Venom – _same here_. You’re everything to me too; you’ve got to know that.”

**_I –_** Fuck, his space goo sounded choked up, **_I love us being_ Venom _, but I also love us being_ Eddie _._**

“Yeah – yeah, we love it; I love it too; we rock,” Eddie couldn’t keep himself from kissing their shoulder, their throat. Worming around until he was kneeling over them, crouching astride their hips, kissing their jaw, “ _You_ rock, Vee.”

**_Eddie, I –_** Clinging to him with hands and tendrils, Venom licked a long stripe up the length of his neck to his chin. **_I want to tell you what Mariela told Dominika last episode._**

Er, what?

“Wuh?” Thrown by the apparent subject change, it took Eddie a moment to work out who – and what – his alien silly putty was referring to. He buried an affectionate chuckle against their neck, “Shit, Vee – you’re talking about that goddamned awful soap, aren’t you.”

**_Not awful,_** For all their mock sulk in response to the insult Eddie didn’t mean _whatsoever_ , Venom persisted, oddly serious, **_Eddie, listen. I'm talking about what Mariela said when Dominika stole her from Julio on their wedding day, right when Mariela was halfway down the aisle. It was a good moment._**

“Okay love,” Snuggling down against them, his space goo effortlessly supporting his weight, Eddie swallowed a fond grin at their earnest tone, “What did Mariela tell Dominika? Don’t think I saw that episode.”

**_That’s because you were snoring on your stomach, drooling onto the couch._ **

“Shit, my bad,” Eddie snorted with laughter, “Go on, tell me.”

**_I love you,_** Venom said, and then, **_I’m in love with you._**

Eddie blinked.

“Uh wait, what?” He suddenly couldn’t seem to get any breath in whatsoever, shooting his head up so he could make eye contact, “Vee, what are you saying – You just mean Mariela’s in love with Dominika, right? Or –”

**_I mean I’m in love with you, Eddie,_** There was a smile as well as a fond sigh in his space goo’s voice. Their eyes narrowed, **_Although yes, Mariela is also in love with Dominika, which is great for Dominika because she feels the same way, but I was using them as an example to talk about us –_**

In honesty, Eddie completely failed to hear any of what they said after his name.

“ _Vee_ –” He was reeling, tears leaping into his eyes, love for his sentient space goo filling his heart and flowing across their bond, feeling answering love from Venom flowing over to him in response. Eddie was replying before he realised it, without needing to think about his answer at all, _I love you I love you I love you; I’m in love with you too. How could I not be?_

**_Eddie Eddie Eddie –_** A sound like a sob from Venom. They kissed him, sweetly and hungrily and _so fucking perfectly_ –

There were a whole lot of Feelings then for a while. This culminated in Eddie making the most of being on top of his space goo, using the opportunity to take thorough advantage of his new abilities involving their bond – specifically the parts of it he could mentally nibble and stroke in order to make them quiver and moan. Investigating the different ways he could wring pleasure out of Venom’s physical self as well, brilliant colours dancing around them ever brighter until they rattled the windows with their roar.

Afterwards, when Venom was doing their best puddle impression once again, Eddie scooped them up smiling and tucked them back inside him, and they both dozed for a while, time passing just as unnoticed as the world outside.

On waking, Eddie peeled the pillow he’d been cuddling as a lesser replacement away from his face and sent a little mental nudge to his stirring space goo.

“Hey, love. Want to come out here?”

**_Can’t,_** They sent a ripple of almost shy amusement across their bond, a sole tendril poking out of his arm to flop around a bit, a revisit from fish-Venom.

“Still too fucked out, huh?” Powerless to hide his smile, Eddie gave the tendril a sleepy kiss when it floundered within range.

**_Mmm,_** It was a very satisfied purr –

Until they paused. Something _not quite right_ slithering across their bond.

“Vee, honey?” Resting a hand against his chest, over the feel of them where they lay curled up around his heart, Eddie wrinkled his brow and bit his lip in concern. “Hey, what’s the matter?”

Shit fuck, what the hell had gone wrong?

**_Eddie, we –_** The lone tendril trembled mournfully against his palm.

Eddie stroked it encouragingly with the ball of his thumb, even as all sorts of awful possibilities started to parade through his brain, “Please love, you can tell me.”

**_We didn’t get to eat any pancakes!_** Venom burst out so plaintively it was all he could not to explode with laughter so hard he fell off the bed.

“Sorry, sorry,” Flailing, Eddie clutched at the tendrils that flew out to catch him, snickering helplessly despite himself with the extent of his relief, “You just had me so worried there for a second.”

**_It’s fine; laugh at our pain,_** His space goo righted his balance with a harrumph.

“Hey, we can still get you pancakes,” Eddie gave each tendril a little apology kiss, “We can slob out at IHOP and be mega gross; you can eat as many as you want.”

Happiness burst across their bond.

**_And waffles?_** Venom wriggled each tendril joyfully after it received its kiss, energy flooding back to them both now in excitement and hope, **_With different toppings?_**

Eddie’s mouth was also watering. This was quite possibly due to transference, but also because right now waffles sounded hellishly good.

“Yeah, and waffles – and we can order all the toppings you like,” Strengthened by the thought of a ridiculously unhealthy dinner and the prospect of a whole lot of coffee, he nodded, grinning broadly as Venom’s delight saturated their bond, “We can go soon as we’re dressed.”

And, although the getting dressed part ended up taking a while –

They did.


End file.
